LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Shelf '^."^ 

— • ■ l^ld 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



1 



TRUCK-FARMING 



AT THE 



SOUTH. 

A Guide to the Raising of Vegetables for Northern 

Markets. 



BY 

De. a. oemler, 

PRESIDENT OF THE CHATHAM CO., GEORGIA, FRriT AND VEGETABLE GKOWEKS 

ASSOCIATION. 



ILLUSTRATED. 





NEW YORK: 

ORANGE JUDD COMPANY, 

7 51 BROADWAY. 

1883. 






^> 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1883, by the 

ORANGE JUDD COMPANY, 

III the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGH 

Preface 5 

Chapter I. 
Labor 7 

Chapter II. 
Soil and its Preparation 10 

Chaptwr hi. 
Manures, their Kinds and Uses 15 

Chapter IV. 
The Kotation of Crops 54 

Chapter V. 
Weeds 59 

Chapter VI. 
Seed and Seed Sowing 62 

Chapter VII. 
Hot-Beds, Cold Frames and Weather 71 

Chapter VIII. 
Transplanting 82 

Chapter IX. 
Water and Watering 87 

Chapter X: 
Packing and Markets 90 

Chapter XI. 
Insects and their Remedies 96 

Chapter XII. 
Asparagus 119 

Chapter XIII. 
Beans, Bush or Snap 130 

Chapter XIV. 
Beet 134 

Chapter XV. 
Cabbage 137 

(3) 



4 CONTEN^TS. 

Chapter XVI. 
Cauliflower 163 

Chapter XVII. 
Cucumber 169 

Chapter XVIII. 
Egg Plant or Guinea Squash 175 

Chapter XIX. 
Kale, Borecole or Sprouts 178 

Chapter XX. 
Lettuce 180 

Chapter XXI. 
Onions 181 

Chapter XXII. 
Pea 191 

Chapter XXIII. 
Potato 195 

Chapter ^XXIV. 

Radish 207 

Chapter XXV. 
Spinach 208 

Chapter XXVI. 
Squash • 209 

Chapter XXVII. 
Sweet Potato 213 

Chapter XXVIII. 

Tomato 220 

Chapter XXIX. 
Watermelon ' 229 

Chapter XXX. 
Strawberry 236 



APPENDIX. 

Analyses and Values of Fertilizers 252 

Economy in Fertilization 257 

Formula for Composts 259 

Useful Tables 262 



PREFACE. 



This work is written in tlie hope that it may be useful 
to my fellow farmers who are engaged in growing vege- 
tables for the Northern markets. The instructions giy- 
en, and facts presented, are mainly such as are not to be 
found in the few works extant on Southern gardening, 
and are those resulting from a long experience. When I 
commenced to produce vegetables for shipment, about 
twenty-six years ago, there were few or none following 
the pursuit as an exclusive business on a large scale. 
The consignments at that time consisted mainly of the 
mere surplus crops of the local market gardeners. The 
business has gradually developed to astonishing propor- 
tions, principally in the vicinity of the larger seaj)ort 
cities of the South. One of the results has been that 
land wdthin three miles of Savannah, for instance, has 
risen in value one hundred and fifty per cent, within the 
last twelve years. While the crops of the wliole area 
tributary to Savannah, were by no means satisfactory 
during the past season, the aggregate quantity of pro- 
duce was large. The following statement shows the pro- 
duce forwarded to the Northern markets direct from the 
port of Savannah by the steamshij^s alone. 

EXPORTS (BY steamers) OP VEGETABLES (AND ORANGES FROM FLORIDA), 
POR THE SEASON ENDING AUGUST 31st, 1882. 



New York . . . 
Baltimore . . . 
Philadelphia. 
Boston 



VEGETABLES. 

Crates. Barrels. 



105,739 

50,787 

24,472 

4,132 



185,130 



27,572 

12,696 

7,956 

630 



48,854 



OKANGES. 

Boxes. Barrels. 



69,379 
2,723 

13,033 
9,837 



94,972 



2, .51 9 
907 
445 
174 



4,045 



TOTAL OF 
PACKAGES. 



205,209 
67,113 
45,906 
14,773 



333,001 



The season's shipment of melons to New York aggre- 
gated 175,000. 
(5) 



6 PREFACE. 

Of course, failures will occur in this, as in every other 
pursuit; but where favorable conditions of soil, situation, 
etc., exist, sober, economical, industrious, and intelligent 
farmers who attend closely to their business, can make 
this a most profitable branch of agriculture. As an in- 
stance of successful truck-farming, I may cite a case 
within my knowledge. Among the prosperous gardeners 
near Savannah, are three brothers, plain farmers from 
Effingham County, Georgia. They were without any 
special advantages as educated horticulturists, but under 
favorable contingencies, and possessing in themselves the 
above named desirable characteristics, they commenced to 
farm on their own account seven years ago. They had a 
borrowed capital of one thousand dollars wherewith to 
operate their first small crop, and make a payment on ac- 
count of their purchase of land. They were not only able 
to pay for the land in full, from the jDroceeds of their 
crops, but have acquired in the aggregate two hundred and 
seventy-five acres, making at various intervals cash pay- 
ments ranging from one thousand five hundred dollars to 
nine thousand one hundred dollars. Besides this, they 
have expended various amounts in buildings, and other 
improvements, and have cash on hand and a bank account. 
One of the brothers has also invested in railroad stock, 
and the elder of them has lately purchased a house and 
lot in town, for four thousand five hundred dollars, while 
there is not a mortgage, or lien, of any kind, on any of 
the property of the brothers. 

A. 0. 



TRUCK.FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 



CHAPTER I. 
LABOR. 



Owing to the perishable nature of the products, the 
areas at the South devoted to truck-farming must remain 
confined to certain limits. These will be near the larger 
cities and along the routes of railroads, by which products 
can be safely and expeditiously dispatched to market. 
Although truck-farming can employ but a comparatively 
small proportion of the labor of the South, it must be 
followed according to the same principles and system 
that govern general agriculture. 

The negro must be accepted as the only practical 
solution of the labor question, and, notwithstanding 
his instability, he is the best for many reasons. It 
would be impolitic, even were it possible, to trust to 
more intelligent and energetic laborers from abroad, and 
mix the two races as field laborers. No dependence could 
be placed upon retaining the foreign help, as his greater 
energy and a praiseworthy desire for self-elevation would 
soon prompt the emigrant, or white laborer, to change 
his status and better his condition. 

Accepting the negro as the God-given instrument for 
the development of the agricultural resources of the 
South, while profiting by his general wastefulness and 
improvidence for his own good and our own, it should 
be the constant aim of every employer, who has the wel- 
fare of southern agriculture at heart, to elevate the labor- 
er. The employer can, by strict justice, fairness and 



8 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 

even kindness, render him satisfied with his lot, to the 
end, that, instead of being an irritating element of the 
body politic, he may become a contented and useful mem- 
ber thereof. Exceptional instances of self-elevation and 
independence should be correctly api^reciated and encour- 
aged as a spur to others. 

The death of slavery was, so to sjDcak, the birth of 
truck-farming on an extensive scale in the South- Atlantic 
and Gulf States; indeed it would otherwise have been im- 
possible. I was probably the largest slave-owner, engaged 
in vegetable culture, in this section; but of •forty-five 
grown negroes, twenty-six only were available as field 
laborers, the others being mechanics, liouse-servants, etc. ; 
and at no time could I have controlled more than that 
number of hands, and few, or none, could have been 
hired. At the present time there are in the vicinity of 
Savannah manv truck-farmers who employ one hundred 
to two hundred laborers during the picking season. 

Ex-Governor Hammond's prediction: that the negro, 
in case of emancij)ation would "^^seek the towns, andraj^- 
idly accumulate in groups upon their outskirts," has cer- 
tainly been verified. It is the better class of this popula- 
tion, those who are willing to do some work, which sup- 
plies the truck-farmer with sulBficient labor during the 
pressing season of gathering his crops. The table below 
gives the usual average rate of wages, without board, 
paid by truck-farmers in the vicinity of Savannah. 



Cob . 



For men — 
For women , 









60 e. 12i-15c 
50 e. 1 12^-15 c 



^ 



20 c. 
20 c. 



$1.00 



00 05 .. 
CSS' • 

o S Co 



$0.75 



^^i 

;^l: 



He. 
Uc. 



•SbS 
;£c^ 



Ic. 
Ic. 



Three baskets fill four crates. AVhen boys and girls 
are hired the pay is at half rate per day. 



LABOR. 9 

A few of the most efficient and trustworthy hands, 
who are particularly useful during the marketing season, 
and receive an increased pay, are selected to care for 
stock. Some farmers pay selected hands five cents per 
basket and one cent per crate additional for joacking 
cucumbers and tomatoes; while others use the gang of 
day laborers for the j^urpose, depending upon their per- 
sonal supervision to prevent injudicious gathering. For 
cutting hay with scythes, men are allowed one-third the 
cured hay, to be bought (at option of the hand or not, 
as may be agreed u23on), by the employer at four dollars 
per rack-load of about eight hundred j)ounds. 

The hours of labor are from sunrise to sunset, with 
variable allowances for meals during the different seasons 
of the year. 

During the shipping season there is no fixed time for 
breaking off work; but extra pay is generally allowed in 
case of much night work. 

If the hands are made to bestir themselves properly 
during their work, it is not unreasonable they should ex- 
pect that the employer will not delay, or hesitate, in 
delivering compensation. Apart from considerations of 
justice, it is considered his policy to j^ay promptly after 
breaking off work on Saturday and before the stores are 
closed. Hands of the better order, and these are to be 
encouraged, may be depended upon to present themselves 
on Monday morning, whether in funds or not; but by 
far the greater majority will require time on Monday to 
get rid of their money, if they have had no opportunity 
of so doing Saturday evening and night, and will be ab- 
sent at roll-call. 

According to the report of the Agricultural Depart- 
ment of 1879, the latest authority at command, the 
average rate of wages paid, without board, in the interior 
of Georgia, was ten dollars and seventy-three cents per 
month. 



10 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 

CHAPTER II. 

SOIL AND ITS PREPARATION. 

The requisites the truck-farmer must have in view in 
selecting a location, are cheap, safe, and expeditious 
transportation of produce to market, convenience for 
procuring manure, a soil adapted to the crops he wishes 
to grow, and sanitary surroundings. Other conditions 
being the same, water carriage is preferable to that by 
wagon. If in the selection of the land, one is confined 
to a single soil, he should select one consisting of a mix- 
ture of organic and inorganic matter; a light, deep, sandy 
loam, with plenty of humus, or vegetable matter. Ex- 
perience has shown that, without this, crops will not 
yield as well in proportion to the quantity of manure 
applied. Locations in the immediate vicinity of the 
larger coast cities, offering the best facilities in the way 
of transportation and manure, are in the possession of 
market gardeners, and such lands are generally highly 
fertile. The truck-farmer requiring a larger area is com- 
pelled to locate several miles beyond the corporate limits, 
on the line of a railroad, or on the banks of a navigable 
stream. The farm will often be one, the fertility of which 
has been shipped off to Europe, or tlie North, in the 
shape of cotton, by some planter, whose measure of suc- 
cess was gauged by the rapidity with which he could ex- 
haust his soil. The renovation of the land will be the 
first desideratum. To that end, and the consequent pro- 
duction of remunerative crops, the plowing under of 
green manures, the application of fertilizers, proper 
preparation, careful tillage, and deep plowing, will be 
necessary. With every additional inch of depth in 
plowing in the first eighteen inches of the surface, 
the farmer gains six million two hundred and seventy- 



SOIL AND ITS PREPARATION. 11 

two thousand six hundred and forty cubic inches per 
acre of available soil, with its mineral ingredients, and 
constantly increasing capacity of gathering, retaining, 
and supplying plant food. The conditions of quality of 
soil and climate being the same, the productiveness of 
soils must be in proportion to its mass. Sir J. B. Lawes 
found five thousand seven hundred pounds of nitrogen 
per acre in the first nine inches of his soil. The Russian 
black lands, which are held to be the richest in the 
world, have, according to Prof. Schmidt, within three feet 
of the surface, from forty thousand to forty-four thousand 
pounds of nitrogen. Several analyses of Boussingault 
showed from twenty-five thousand to thirty-two thousand 
pounds per acre beneath the surface, and a soil analyzed 
by Prof. Voelcker, in 1868, showed eight thousand four 
hundred and twenty-five pounds per acre. The practice 
of deep plowing will depend upon circumstances; a good, 
though shallow mould, or other soil, resting upon a 
sticky, clay subsoil, would not be benefited by being at once 
broken up deeply, bringing large, hard lumps of unfertile 
clay to the surface, and deteriorating the physical quality 
of the top-soil. 

DRAINAGE. 

Drainage, more especially underdrainage, renders a 
clay subsoil, when moved by the plow, more suscepti- 
ble to pulverization, and in such case a thorough 
drainage would have to precede deep plowing. Under- 
drainage prevents the drowning out of crops after heavy 
rainfalls. It increases the fertility and pulverization of 
the soil by admitting air. It keeps the ground moister 
in a dry season. It prevents the washing away of the 
soil and its fertilizing materials. It permits the farmer 
to work his land sooner after heavy rain, and earlier in 
the spring, and it prevents the land from becoming sour 



12 TRUCK-FAKMING AT THE SOUTH. 

in wet seasons. The total absence of water would be de- 
structive to vegetation, for it is itself necessary to plant 
life; but undrained land is not merely wet, it becomes 
water-logged, and through absence of air, the plants are 
drowned out. When, however, water passes through, and 
away from the land, air takes its place, and also passes 
through the drains, and finds its way into the overlying 
soil, increasing its fertility and pulverizing it. The rea- 
son why drained land gains heat, and the temperature of 
water-logged land decreases, is the lack of heat-conducting 
power in water, or the fact that air can not be transmitted 
downwards through water. When land is saturated with 
water, the heat is exj)ended in evaporating the moisture, 
instead of warming the land, and during this evapora- 
tion the temperature is reduced. Undrained land be- 
comes sour in wet weather, and the formation of sub- 
stances injurious to vegetation is encouraged. The ab- 
sorbing power of soil is so great that ammonia and other 
fertilizing agents of water and air are arrested in their 
passage through it, thus enriching the soil; while the 
water on undrained land washes over the surface, carry- 
ing off into the water courses the fertility that might be 
saved. In undrained land, the passage of moisture, en- 
couraged by evaporation from the surface, is upwards, 
whereas in drained land, the current is downwards 
to the level of the drains, supplying the roots with 
aerated moisture in condition to be taken up by them. 
An excess of water in the soil produces such a saturated 
state of the atmosphere, as to prevent a healthy perspira- 
tory action of the leaves of plants growing upon it, and 
growth is retarded. 

PREPARING THE SOIL. 

Efficient drainage being j^rovided, tlie land should be 
broken up and pulverized as deeply as possible. A mass 



SOIL AND ITS PREPAEATION. 13 

of sticky clay will absorb a slight amount of moisture, 
but when it is reduced to a powdered condition, its ab- 
sorbing power will be very much increased. One hundred 
grains of fine clay left for twelve hours in contact witli 
a solution of caustic potash, the latter not filtered through 
it, absorbed one thousand and fifty grains of potash. 

Soils have the power of separating ammonia, and other 
bases from their solutions, and of separating alkaline 
bases from the acids with which they were combined. 

Soils possessing the greatest amount of capillary poros- 
ity, most friable and mellow, or, in other words, such as 
are in the best agricultural condition, will condense the 
greatest amount of fertilizing material; and the more 
they are pulverized, the better will they resist the leach- 
ing action of water. Soil in an improper physical con- 
dition may hold fertilizing materials in sufficient quanti- 
ties for a full crop. It will, however, yield only a small 
percentage to the vegetation upon it, until it is made 
friable, and so becomes conducive to growth. Carbonic 
acid is one of the chief agents in this process; and in 
order that this acid may be formed, the carbonaceous 
matter in the soil must be brought in direct contact with 
the atmosphere. As long as the soil is in a compact con- 
dition, or is saturated with water, carbonic acid is not 
formed. During the recent severe drouths it has been 
observed that crops growing on deeply-plowed land have 
suffered the least, for the reason that the greater the 
mass of fine soil, the greater must have been the amount 
of moisture absorbed. Heat is evolved during the de- 
composition of vegetable matter; and the darker the soil 
is from decomposing vegetable matter, the warmer will it 
become. The warmth of light-colored sands is attribut- 
able to their conductive power. Half the crop depends 
sometimes upon the previous preparation of the land. 
Owing to the absence of a covering of snow and of suc- 
cessive freezings and thawings, fall plowing, so useful at 



14 TRUCK-FARM IliTG AT THE SOUTH. 

the North, is destructive of fertility at the South and is 
not advisable. 

CULTIYATIOK. 

The land having been properly prepared by jdIow- 
ing, and sufficiently manured, and the crop planted 
with regard to the capacity of the soil, the most im- 
portant matter to the farmer is, thorough culture, or 
keeping the earth fine and mellow among the plants. 
Stirring the soil can scarcely be repeated too often during 
the earlier periods of growth, or until there is danger of 
injury to the roots or to the tops of growing plants by 
the cultivator. The ground may be too wet, but never 
too dry, for stirring; because the more frequently it is 
broken up, fined and aerated, the more moisture will the 
soil absorb from the atmosphere. This is an operation 
that should be performed after every rain, sufficient 
to cause incrustation or baking, which would prevent a 
free admission of air into the soil. The most obvious 
benefit of stirring the soil is, the destruction of weeds; 
for no crop can become remunerative, if crowded by 
weeds which deprive it of air, light, moisture, and even 
a part of the fertility of the soil. A war of extermination 
should be waged against weeds, although at times they 
become a necessary evil to the farmer who only cultivates 
the soil between the rows. Breaking the lumps gives 
free scope to the finer roots to secure all the available 
nutriment within the extent of their ramifications, as 
these finer roots are not capable of penetrating large 
clods, and thus may be debarred from reaching a large 
part of the food contained in the soil. Thorough and 
frequent culture of the soil admits air to the rootlets of 
the growing plant; it increases the capillary attraction 
of the soil, by which its humidity is rendered more uni- 
form; by presenting a larger number of points of radia- 



MAJEURES, THEIR KI^Js'DS AND USES. 15 

tion, the deposit of dew, so beneficial in dry weather, is 
augmented; the temperature of the soil is increased by 
the freer admission of warm rain and air, and by the 
chemical processes thereby facilitated; and finally the 
fertility of the soil is augmented through the ammonia, 
nitric acid, etc., which are introduced with the air. The 
plow, horse-hoe, and cultivator are to be used, whenever 
available; but the hand-hoe must always be relied on for 
the finer and more careful work, when, particularly in 
the later stages of the crop, only superficial stirring is 
advisable. When plants are grown in a crowded state, 
darkness and want of air elongate the stems and leaves, 
at the expense of the roots and of a general healthy con- 
dition. The operations of thinning and hand-weeding 
are performed in connection with hoeing, to admit a free 
circulation of air around the remaining plants, and the 
sun is permitted to have an immediate iafluence upon each, 
developing the desired form, bulk, and other qualities. 



CHAPTER III. 

MANURES, THEIR KINDS AND USES. 

Almost any soil may be so altered in its character by 
judicious and plentiful manuring, as to be made fertile 
enough to produce good and remunerative crops. Manure 
is the most indispensable factor for success in market- 
gardening, and must be applied in much larger quantities 
than in any other branch of agriculture. The gardener 
should never be restricted by a short supply to an inad- 
equate application of manure, as the superior quality and 
quantity of his crops will generally justify an apparently 
lavish use. Knowledge of his soil, the peculiar requisites 



16 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 

of his crops, a judicious rotation, and liis general ex- 
perience will teacli him, where and v/hen he may econ- 
omize with profit. He must not, however, gorge his 
land with manure, without rest or rotation, but seek to 
make it just rich enough to produce the most profitable 
crops. Should too much manure be applied, which, 
however, is rarely the case in vegetable culture, there 
will be loss of the most costly manurial ingredient — 
nitrogen. Location, or want of facilities and means, 
frequently confines the gardener to forced limits. Those 
w^ho are neither conveniently located for the purchase of 
vStable manure, nor own sufficient stock to secure from 
their droppings a sufficiency of barn-yard manure, must 
have recourse to manurial agents to be named hereafter. 
Astonishing results are frequently seen in gardens near 
iarsre cities, from the readiness such localities offer for 
procuring the best manures. 

Agriculture being the foundation of the prosperity of 
every people, and successful agriculture being impossible 
in the present condition of the earth's surface without 
fertilizers, it has properly been said, that ^^ manure, even 
more than money; forms an integral part of a nation's 
wealth. " 

When civilized nations properly appreciate the value 
of all manurial substances (as they will when their 
territory becomes as densely populated as China), none 
of these, as at present, will be alloAved to go to waste, 
and the productiveness of the earth, and with it the 
wealth of nations, will be enormously increased. Prog- 
ress in this direction is being made. Scientific men have 
pointed out the sanitary and economical necessity of deal- 
ing properly with excrementitious manurial substances. 
If, during the past century, the night-soil of many of 
our cities had l)een incorporated in the surface soil of 
the surrounding country, instead of being buried under 
the houses of their citizens, what would be the fertility 



MANURES, THEIR KINDS AND USES. 17 

of the soil, and what the probable benefit to the sanitary- 
condition of the cities? 

Manures are either organic or inorganic, according as 
they may owe their composition to the animate or in- 
animate world, or are derived from vegetable and animal 
matters of all kinds, or from minerals. 

Every kind of matter which, when added to the soil, 
promotes the growth of a plant, whether by being itself 
directly taken up by ii s roots, or by chemically altering 
any heretofore existing constituent of the soil, so that it 
may be made available, or by physically altering its tex- 
ture, may be considered a manure or fertilizer. Every 
plant consists principally of the gaseous elements, ni- 
trogen, oxygen, and hydrogen, and of carbon in vary- 
ing proportions, and smaller quantities of alkalies, earths, 
silica, sulphur, and phosphorus. Chemical analysis has 
enabled us to learn the exact proportions of the constit- 
uents of plants, as well as the composition of soils. If 
chemical forces were the only forces of nature concerned 
in the growth of plants, then by supplying the soil with 
exactly the constituents in definite quantities, which 
chemical analysis has shown it to lack for the full matu- 
rity of any given agricultural crop, rules and formulas 
could be devised, so as to insure regularly the maximum 
jdelds of all crops. But the changes, not yet fully un- 
derstood, constantly going on within the soil and upon 
its surface in contact with the atmosphere; the mutual 
chemical reactions of the various soils and fertilizing ma- 
terials, and the vital actions of plants, with their influence 
upon the soil in which they grow, perhaps even upon 
the surrounding air, still more inexplicable and wonder- 
ful, together with the contingencies of weather, render 
it impossible to formulate any such rules. Exclusive of 
the crushing effects of glaciers and other agencies, under 
the gradual influence of water and the atmosphere, the 
surface of the rocks have become sufiiciently pulverized 



18 TRUCK-FARMIKG AT THE SOUTH. 

and comminuted to support licliens and other of the 
lowest forms of vegetation, which, by their decay in- 
creased the film of soil. These were followed by plants 
of a higher organization, successive generations pre- 
paring for those which followed them. Thus organic 
constituents accumulated, until, in time, every arable 
soil contained in varying proportions every element 
of plant food. The variations are such, however, that a 
soil in its natural or original condition may be more or 
less deficient in one or other constituent, and therefore 
be better adapted for one crop than another. Finding 
from experience or analysis, which of the principal con- 
stituents is absent in a soil, we may supply it by the ap- 
plication of a special fertilizer for the production of a 
particular crop. 

Humus, or vegetable matter undergoing decay, which 
gives the dark color to fertile soils, disintegrates miner- 
al substances, supplies large quantities of carbonic acid, 
ammonia, and nitrates, and is in disj^en sable to fertility; 
and yet the direct absorption of humic matters into 
plants is by no means so well established, as not to be a 
mooted question between the best chemical authorities 
and vegetable physiologists. 

Ammonia and nitric acid have been shown to be pres- 
ent in the air; but it is generally held that the soil must 
absorb these, or they must be conveyed to it in rain W' ater, 
before they can be genei'ally apjDropriated by plants. 
Yet Peters and Sachs proved, experimentally, that a bean 
plant grew and flourished by direct absorption of am- 
monia through its foliage alone; but they failed wdth 
every plant but the bean, which, like our cow pea, is a 
leguminous plant. Chemical analysis shows that the le- 
guminosae are richer in nitrogenous matter than any other 
family of plants, and yet we know that our cow pea w^ill 
grow on the poorest soil^ deriving its nourishment in 
part from the atmosphere. Ozone, or active oxygen, is 



MANURES, THEIR KINDS AND USES. 19 

emitted by plants, and the more abundant the foliage, 
the greater the quantity. By the action of this ozone, 
the nitrogen of the air may be converted into nitric acid. 
Perhaps tiie cow pea, the clover, etc., are more active in 
this respect than any other plants. 

These preliminary observations bring me to the first 
and most simple and cheapest manner of conveying fer- 
tility to the soil. 

GREEN MANURING. 

As soon as life is extinct, all organic substances begin to 
decay, and the richer these substances are in albuminoids, 
or such as contain nitrogen, the better are they adapted for 
fertilizing, and the more rapid will be the process of de- 
cay. Under like circumstances, albuminoids of animal 
origin will decompose more rapidly than those of vege- 
table origin. All green succulent plants containing 
saccharine and mucilaginous matters and Avoody fibre, fer- 
ment readily, hence the advantage of plowing in green 
crops, whether of natural growth, or sown for the pur- 
pose. No plant is better adapted to be used at the South 
for restoring fertility by green manuring than our cow 
pea. The analyses here given show it to be rich in 
albuminoids; it makes in our climate a heavier growth 
than clover in any part of the world, and grows on soil 
much too poor for a fair crop of the latter, answering 
thus both the demands of quality and quantity. When 
plants are in flower, they contain the largest quantity of 
soluble matter; it is, therefore, when plowed under at 
this season, under ordinary circumstances, that they will 
afford the greatest amount of soluble nutritive matter. 

In heavy, impervious soils, especially, they should not 
be turned under too deeply, or else the absence of air will 
retard decomposition. No applications of commercial 
fertilizers will continuously prove beneficial without the 
presence, in the soil, of decaying vegetable matter, or hu- 



20 



TRUCK-FARMIN^G AT THE SOUTH. 



mus, and green manuring is the most efficacious and 
cheapest manner of supiil3dng the land with large quan- 
tities of this necessaiy ingredient. 

It should be practised by gardeners, irrespective of the 
supply of stable manure they may be able to command. 
But for those located at a distance from cities, and there- 
fore not able to secure a sufficiency of barn-yard manure, 
green manuring becomes an absolute necessity. 

It has been estimated that after the removal of a crop 
of clover and other plants, there remained in the soil, as 
shown in the following tables, a large amount of roots: 

TABLE SHOWING THE QUANTITY OF ROOTS LEFT IN THE GROUND AFTER 
HARVESTING THE CROPS — ALSO THE AMOUNT OF NITROGEN AND ASH. 



Lucerne 

Red clover 

Rye 

Swedish clover 

Oats 

Lupine 

Wheat 

En2;lish peas — 

Serradella 

Barley 




9,678.1 

8,921.6 

5,364.6 

5,004.3 

3,331.9 

3,520.9 

3,476 

3,222.5 

3,120.1 

1,991.4 



136.4 
191.6 
65.3 
102.3 
26.6 
62.2 
23.5 
55,6 
64.8 
22.8 



®'^ S s s. 

._. 1. O lU 

>2 nv^-o 9, 



1,201.6 
1,919.9 
1,747.8 
974.6 
1,444.7 

550 
1,089.8 
670.7 
545.6 
391.1 



ANALYSIS OF THE ASH OF THE ROOTS IN THE FOREGOING TABLE. 



Lucerne I 197.7 

Red clover 262.9 

Rye 73.2 

Swedish clover 1 136.1 

Oats 85.5 

Lupine 80.5 

Wheat I 76.7 

English peas I 71 .7 

Serradella ! 79.8 

Barley I 43.2 



24.2 
48 !4 
14.3 
17.6 
11.3 
11.3 
10.1 
11 
13.4 
5.5 





o 




l-S 




^•r» 


« 


t^ 


■e 


.s 


o 


cq 


Vi 





36.7 
58.3 
31.3 
25.9 
24.8 
16.5 
28.4 
11.3 
8.8 
9.5 



36.4 


18.7 


30.0 


36.1 


43.3 


11.8 


5.7 


13.3 


18 


8.8 


3.5 


7 


11 


7.4 


7 


9.4 


4.8 


9 


3.5 


5.5 






38.5 

74.8 

34.4 

24.3 

39 

13.8 

11.8 

14.3 

18.4 

11.3 



MANUKES, THEIR KIN^DS AKD USES. 21 

It will be seen by these two tables tliat the leguminous 
plants are especially rich in the three most important 
items: nitrogen^ potash, and phos]3horic acicl. 

These roots bring up from the subsoil plant food, and 
in decaying, tend to deepen the soil along their course. 
A crop of cow peas would probably have nearly as great 
a weight of roots as clover, and in the neighborhood of 
twenty tons of tops. The latter alone would contain 
one hundred and sixteen pounds of nitrogen, principally 
obtained from the atmosphere; or as much as is contained 
in twelve and nine-tenths tons of barn-yard manure, and 
directly applied to the soil. Seven pecks to two bushels of 
peas would cost from two dollars to three dollars, and the 
barn-yard manure, if at all attainable, nineteen dollars 
and thirty-five cents, applied to the land at one dollar 
and fifty cents per ton. 

ANALYSIS OF GREEK COW PEA VINES. 

This and the following two analyses were made by 
Prof. A. R. Le Doux, chemist to the State Board of 
Agriculture, of South Carolina. 

Water 72.87 per cent. 

Ash 2.00 " 

Albuminoids — 1.85 " containing ammonia, 0.35: nitrogen, 0.28 

Cellulose 15.37 '• 

Fat 0.21 " 

Carbohydrates.. 7.86 " 

ANALYSIS OF THE ASH OF COW PEA VINES. 

Ash 2.00 per cent. 

Potash 14.80 " 

Soda 23.29 

Magnesia 6.74 

Lime 22.57 

Phosphoric acid 9.28 " 

Sulphuric acid 2.35 " 

Silica 1.08 " 

Chlorine 0.19 " 

Oxide of iron a trace " 

Carbonic acid 19.70 '* 



22 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 

By reducing the analyses to weights and measures it is 
found that 

ONE TON OF FRESH COW PEA VINES CONTAIN 

Water 1456.20 lbs. 

Potash 5.92 " 

Soda 9.32 " 

Magnesia 2.70 " 

Lime 9.02 *' 

Phosphoric aeid 3.72 " 

Sulphuric acid 0,94 " 

Silica 0.42 " 

Clilorine 0.08 " 

Carbonic acid 7.88 " 

Albuminoids 37.00 " contaiuing ammonia, 7.12 lbs. 

Cellulose 305.40 " 

Fat 4.20 " 

Carbohydrates 156.20 '* 

2000.00 lbs. 

Boussingault found that snow, which had lain for 
thirty-six hours on the soil of a garden, contained ten 
times as much ammonia as the snow of the same fall 
from a contiguous stone terrace immediately after falling, 
the mulch of snow having interruj^ted the ammoniacal 
emanations from the soil. The ammonia of the soil is 
constantly undergoing change, and fluctuating in quantity. 
This most important article of plant food, and most ex- 
pensive, when applied artificially, is most abundantly ab- 
sorbed by the soil in summer from the atmosphere, and 
being conveyed to it by rains and dews, and continually 
being taken up by vegetation, it is volatilized, evaporated 
with water, washed away and lost. Later and more 
exact chemical ex23eriments have shown that the soil 
contains less ready-formed ammonia than was formerly 

neiCl to be tlie case. Ammonia 171 dry soil. 

Very light sandy soil from birch forest 0.00077 per cent. 

Rich lime soil from beech forest 0.00087 " 

Sandy loam, forest soil 0.00012 " 

Forest soil 0.00080 " 

Meadow soil, red sandy loam 0.00027 " 

Average 0.00056 " 

It should be remembered that ammonia is only half as 
heavy as air. 



MAJEURES, THEIR KIXDS AI^D USES. 23 

Ricli alluvial soils with decaying vegetable matter con- 
tain ten times as much, and fertilized field soils still 
more. Ammonia is only found in the surface soil, and 
generally at a depth of six feet there is no trace of it. 

Sir J. B. Lawes found that in one year the drain water 
took nitrogen from a field bare of vegetation at the 
rate of forty pounds per acre; from a field of wheat, 
which after the harvest contained no weeds, twenty-five 
pounds, and from a field upon which grass seed had been 
sown with the wheat, and continued to grow on the stub- 
ble field, only five pounds. 

POUNDS OF NITROGEN WASHED AWAY PER ACRE. 

From soil without vegetation 40 pounds. 

From soil with wheat, 15 pounds retained by crop... 25 " 
From soil and grasses, 15 pounds retained by wheat. 

25 pounds retained by grasses 5 " 

He found that the drain water was much richer in am- 
monia than the rain water which fell upon the field. He 
also found another fact of importance to our subject of 
green-manuring, that the drain water carried away more 
ammonia in the fall than in any other part of the year. 
It is therefore exactly at this season that the soil of the 
truck-farmer should be covered by a dense growth of 
vines. It has been shown that even a perfectly inert 
body, like a board, lying upon the surface Avill improve 
the fertility of the soil, by preventing evaporation. 

Now the mulch of pea vines acts like the covering of 
snow. It shades the soil from the rays of the sun, by 
which the volatile elements of fertility are exhausted with 
the vaporized water; it keeps the soil moist, mellow, and 
of even temperature; and as a secondary matter prevents 
the growth of troublesome weeds. The friable, uubaked 
condition of the surface, as has been before stated, is an 
element of fertility, by facilitating the absorption of fer- 
tilizing gases from the atmosphere. Under this dense 
covering, so retentive of moisture, tlie carbonic acid dis- 
integrates particles of the soil and prepares it for plant 



24 TRUCK-FARMII^G AT THE SOUTH. 

food; while in the darkness and under the shelter from 
winds, nitrates are formed and absorbed. It will be seen 
that the increase of fertility is greater than could be ex- 
pected from all the manurial agents in the pea vines. 

Clay soils, being more retentive of moisture and pos- 
sessed of greater power of absorption, are less benefited 
by the mulch than those of a sandy character. 

Like the questions of deep and shallow plowing and 
deep and surface manuring, that of plowing under the 
green vines, or allowing them to dry and partly rot upon 
the surface, will depend upon circumstances. They will 
contain and convey to the soil in the green state a greater 
quantity of fertilizing material and will decompose more 
rapidly. If intendsc! to benefit a crop to be put in soon 
after they have reached a proper stage of growth, they 
must, of course, be plowed under green. Four weeks 
should elapse between turning under the vines and sow- 
ing or planting the crop, in order to allow a sufficient 
time for the most active decomposition to have passed, 
lest the heat evolved by the great mass of decaying green 
vegetable matter might be detrimental. For a spring 
crop, however, the vines should be left to die, and mulch the 
soil throughout the winter, unless indeed a second green 
crop, as of rye, is contemplated; because a bare fallow 
would be wasteful of the fertility supplied by the pea 
vdnes. It is an error that the bare soil deteriorates dur- 
ing dimmer only, for it is a common experience that a 
field of light soil, left bare after a late crop of sweet 
potatoes, shows a want of fertility the ensuing spring. 

Two crops of pea vines may be grown in a season; but 
after an interval of three or four weeks. To turn under 
a heavy growth properly, it must first be pressed down by 
a field roller or by dragging over it a heavy harrow with 
the teeth turned up; and it requires a good two-horso 
plow with a large sharp revolving coulter attached. To 
draw the vines into the furrows, a heavy chain with snf- 



MANURES, THEIR KINDS AND USES. 



25 



ficient slack should be attached to the whiffletree and 
plow-beam. Capt. J. W. Mc Alpine has devised an iron hook 
** horn," which is attached to the plow-beam, as in figure 




Fiff. 1.— IRON HOOK OR " HORN " ATTACHED TO PLOW. 

1. It works just in advance of the plow point; and on 
the surface its curvature corresponds to that of the mould- 
board, and draAVS the vines into the furrow. The same 
person has also invented a roller, which has a set of five 
projecting knives, with which to cut the vines when the 
growth is very luxuriant. By driving twice over the 
field at right angles the vines are cut in ten-inch lengths, 
and can be turned under effectively. The roller is fixed 
to shafts or a tongue, and as it is too light, a weighted 




"Fig. 3.— ROLLER FOR CUTTING COW PEA VINES. 

box is attached above the axle. The roller, figure 2, is 
fourteen inches in diameter, the knives five inches wide 
and ten inches apart. As neither of these inventions is 
patented, any one can use them. 

STABLE MANURE. 

Stable manure is a complete fertilizer, and is of all 
the most to be relied upon by the market-gardener, as it 
2 



26 TRUCK-FARMUq-G AT THE SOUTH. 

contains all the elements of fertility in available con- 
dition. No other is so well adapted to alter the physical 
condition of heavy soils, nor, when well rotted, better 
suits those of a sandy nature; nor is any other more apt 
to render the constituents of the soil available to plant 
food. Gardeners in the vicinity of cities may procure a 
sufficient supply and require no other manure, unless for 
a special purpose they desire to supplement it with a 
commercial fertilizer more rich in nitrogenous matter, 
such as Peruvian guano, fish scrap, etc. Those who are 
not so fortunately situated must utilize their smaller 
stock, by letting it form the basis of compost heaps to 
bring about and sustain the fermentation so necessary to 
break down the crude vegetable materials of which such 
heaps partly consist. Manures, to be promptly effica- 
cious, should be in a state of at least partial decompo- 
sition, so that the elements of which they consist may be 
in a fit state to form new combinations, or act at once as 
plant food. To bring about this condition without waste 
of material and expense of time and labor, is one of the 
problems of the horticulturist. Once placed within 
reach of the absorptive power of the soil, there is no fur- 
ther loss by evaporation. If the manure pile could be 
merely kept sufficiently moist by rains, to prevent a too 
rapid fermentation, it might be advisable not to keep it 
under cover; but the rains in our climate are too often 
heavy enough to leach out valuable soluble parts of the 
largest hea^^s. The difference in the composition of cov- 
ered and uncovered barn-yard manure is here shown. 



Barn-yard manure. 
Nitrogen equal to ammonia, per cent. 

Organic matter soluble in water 

Phosphoric acid 

Alkalies 



Covered. 


Uncovered. 


2.37 


1.7 


6.43 


1.82 


0.30 


0.26 


2.00 


0.80 



Exposed to the weather, piled, tisirned and handled, 
without proper judgment and close attention, there is 



MAKUllES, THEIR KII^DS AND USES. 



27 



danger of loss, besides the expense of time and labor. 
The general agriculturist, particularly on heavy soils, 
whose crops are of coarser growth, may apply manure 
green or fresh from the stables, when its effects are often 
so permanent as to be perceptible for many years; but the 
market-gardener's aim is to produce early crops of veg- 
etables, and his manures must be in a readily available 
condition. He wants no permanent manures. Perma- 
nence and insolubility are, in this case, synonymous. 
Luxuriant growth is an indication of the solubility of his 
fertilizers. He wants his manure pile to undergo such 
an amount of slow fermentation, as to break down the 
coarse fibrous vegetable matter it contains, so as to admit 
its being readily cut with a spade, and thus also to reduce 
its bulk. 

COMPOSITION OF FRESH AND DECOMPOSED STABLE MANURE. 



5^ 



Pi CO 

Sop 









INGREDIENTS OF ASH. 



Stable Manure 

do. moderately rotted,, 
do. thoroughly rotted.. 



710 246 44.1 4.5 5.2 l.SjS. 71. 4 
750 192 .58.0 5.0 6.3 1.9,7.0 1.8 
790 145 65.0 5.8 5.01.3:8.81.8 



o 

a. 8 

A* 



2.1 
2.6 
3.0 






5Q 



1.212.5 
1.616.8 
1.3117.0 






1.5 
1.9 
1.6 



If piled so loosely as to admit air freely and be suffi- 
ciently moist, it will undergo fermentation so rapidly as 
to heat or firefang, and large quantities of the valuable, 
volatile carbonate of ammonia will evaporate, and the 
manure be rendered comparatively valueless. To avoid 
this too rapid fermentation, the pile may be broken 
down and turned whenever it begins to heat, until the 
process ceases to be too active. The escape of ammonia 
may be checked by mixing land plaster (sulphate of 
lime) with each load, so as to fix the ammonia as a sul- 
phate (which is not volatile). The gardener near the 



28 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 

city, whose large pile daily receives considerable acces- 
sions, may resort to packing it so tightly as to limit the 
access of air, and consequently the rapidity of fermenta- 
tion, until near planting time, or, if po.^sible and bet- 
ter still, he may keep it too moist for rapid decay by 
adding night-soil from the city, which will at the same 
time improve its quality. 

Gardeners near cities who accumulate a large stock of 
stable manure, do not generally place it under shelter, 
notwithstanding the accruing loss, but deposit it in 
suitable quantities for each field in a single pile, upon 
the headland convenient for use, and compact it by mere- 
ly driving across the pile at each delivery. Never more 
than four hundred wagon loads are deposited in a pile. 
If, when finished, the heaps were covered completely with 
soil to the thickness of two or three inches, the escaping 
ammonia would be absorbed and fermentation retarded. 
It must be borne in mind, that even in winter we must 
limit the process of fermentation, and not encourage it, 
r.s is sometimes necessary in tiie Northern States; and 
we must also avoid leaching. 

The fermentation of stable manure may be retarded 
by the admixture of substances not liable to rapid fer- 
mentation. The gardener in the country may resort to 
composting it with muck, woods-earth, or even good 
garden soil, dry and pulverized salt-mud, or the same 
material in the shape of a soft mush in order to avoid 
getting it in the form of large lumps into his manure, 
and may also use green marsh-grass {Simrtina strict a), if 
he be located on ''the salts." Vegetable refuse of every 
kind, with leaves from the woods, slops from the kitchen 
and wash-house, with the dung of those domestic animals 
which does not readily heat, as that of neat cattle and 
swine, in short, everything available that will supply 
plant food may be added to the heap. The dung of all 
kinds of poultry, the urine and night-soil of the farm. 



MANUKES, THEIR KINDS AND USES. 29 

scraps of leather and woolen cloth and waste feathers 
will heat; but they also should go into the compost -heap. 

In the application of manure, the kind of crop, previ- 
ous fertility of the soil and the quality of the manure 
will govern the quantity. 

The amount and manurial value of the excrement void- 
ed by an animal depends upon the quality of its feed. The 
manurial value of hulled cotton-seed meal is more than 
twelve times that of wheat-straw, three times that of 
clover-hay, twice that of wheat-bran, ten times that of 
mangel wurzel, and thirty times that of common turnips. 
Of all vegetable substances used as cattle feed, hulled 
cotton-seed meal is the richest in nitrogen, phosphoric 
acid and potash, the most essential requisites m the 
growth of plants, and these will appear again most abun- 
dantly in the dung. The money value of the manure 
from different articles of food according to calculations 
of Sir J. B. Lawes, based upon the value of nitrogen, 
phosphoric acid and potash in leading commercial fertil- 
izers, are: 

VALUE OF A TON OF MANURE FROM DIFFKRENT KINDS OF FOOD. 

Per ton. 

Cotton-seed meal $27.86 

Linseed cake 19.72 

Beans 15.73 

Wheat-bran 14.59 

Clover-hay 9.64 

Indian meal , 6.63 

Oat-straw 2.90 

Turnips 0.80 

Block estimated that a horse fed on one hundred pounds 
of hay will void one hundred and seventy-two pounds of 
fresh dung; one hundred pounds of oats gave two hun- 
dred and four pounds; and one hundred pounds of grass 
gave forty-three pounds of dung. A horse furnishes, if 
well fed, about twelve thousand pounds of solid dung 
and three thousand pounds of urine annually. The ma- 
nure from the street-car stables in Kew York was found 



30 TRUCK-FARMIKG AT THE SOUTH. 

by Johnson to contain 0.53 per cent, of nitrogen. 
Eeckoning two-thirds of the solid and fluid droppings 
saved, we have ten thousand j)ounds, or five tons of 
manure to each horse, containing fifty-three pounds of 
nitrogen. 

In his method of applying his manure the sen&ible 
gardener will be governed by the nature of his soil and 
manure, and by the kind of crop he wishes to grow. 

Half an inch of rain, although amounting to fourteen 
thousand gallons, or fifty-six tons to the acre, would not 
penetrate deeply into a heavy soil, hence in such a soil 
long, partly unfermented dung would not, if buried 
deeply, find sufficient moisture and air to support fermen- 
tation and dissolve out the manure for the benefit of the 
crop. A sandy soil favors decomposition, being more 
permeable to air and moisture, and as roots penetrate 
more deeply in a light soil, unfermented dung might be 
placed five or six inches deep in such a soil. Upon a 
dry, hot, light soil, manure of that description would be 
too heating if near the surface. At the rate of eight 
tons of manure to the acre, half an inch of rain would 
furnish nearly a gallon to every pound, and in the case of 
well-rotted or soluble manure, placed near the surface of 
either heavy or sandy land, would convey the ingredients 
of plant food in a dissolved state to the roots of plants. 
On either heavy or sandy soil, therefore, well-rotted ma- 
nure should be intimately mixed with the soil to the 
depth of three or four inches, when applied broadcast, 
and the nearer the surface, the finer should the soil be 
pulverized to increase its absorj)tive power. Unless un- 
fermented long manure is buried in a light soil, it had 
better be not incorporated, but applied upon the soil as 
a mulch. Such manure commingled with a heavy soil 
would benefit it physically by rendering it more open for 
admission of air, and the heat evolved would accelerate 
growth. The observations above apply to land well- 



MAiq^URES, THEIR KINDS Al!TD USES. 31 

drained, especially under-drained. If badly drained and 
presenting a slope in any direction, the washing surface- 
.water would carry off a large part of the soluble manure 
from the surface. 

Manure for close crops, whenever a large supply per- 
mits, should be applied broadcast, by preference; but 
generally economy and the desire for a vigorous start 
will demand its application in the drill. Only in the case 
of plants standmg far apart, as melons, is manuring in 
the hill practicable, unless only a part of the manure is 
so applied. The great majority of the roots would soon 
extend beyond its limits, and the plant would suffer in 
the later stages of growth. 

BARK- YARD MANURE. 

This consists of the mixed droppings of such animals 
as are allowed to run in an open lot, the surface of which 
is strewn with more or less of absorbents. It may be re- 
garded as a combination of the solid and fluid excrements 
of the different animals, and is of variable quality, owing 
to waste by leaching rains. If horses and mules alone 
are enclosed, its value would be that of an inferior stable 
manure. Notwithstanding its variable value, it is often 
used as a standard. 

cow MANURE. 

Although the fresh, solid excrement of the horse is 
richer in ammonia than that of neat cattle, the latter, 
on the other hand, is not subject to loss by heating. It 
contains more urea (suppljdng nitrogen) in the urine, and 
there is a greater quantity both of solid and liquid excre- 
ment voided; hence the manure of a cow must be con- 
sidered more valuable than that of a horse, particularly 
when the former has had nutritious food. 



32 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 

A COW, fed upon twenty-four pounds of hay and twelve 
and a half pounds of Irish potatoes, voided daily about 
one bushel of solid excrement, containing two and a half 
pounds of salts of ammonia, potash, soda and lime. 

The annual product of a cow is thirty-one thousand 
and twenty-five pounds of dung, of which four thousand 
eight hundred pounds is organic matter, containing: 

189 lbs. ammonia, 
71 lbs. phosphate of lime, 
37 lbs. sulphate of lime, 
77 lbs. carbonate of lime, 
24 lbs. common salt, 
15 lbs. sulphate potash. 

The yard manure of a full-grown ox is considered 
equal to that of a horse and a half, or ten to fifteen sheep. 

One cord fresh cow dung weighs 9,298 lbs. 

One cubic foot of old, well-rotted ox manure weighs. .. 58 " 

a u a a f^.ggij u u ,, __ 48 " 

" " " " well-rotted stable manure " ... 39 " 
u ♦' " " fresh " " " ... 30 "* 

The amount of urine voided annually by a cow is 
from twelve thousand to fifteen thousand gallons. 
In every hundred pounds : 

Of cattle urine are 4.00 lbs. of urea. 

" horse urine 0.70 " " " 

" human urine 2.36 " " " 

" sheep urine 2-80 " '' " 

" hog urine 5.64 " " " t 

The composition of urea is, according to Dr. Prout, 
carbon, 19.99; oxygen, 26.66; hydrogen, 6.66; nitrogen, 
46.66. The nitrogen is equal to 56.66 parts of ammonia. 
Owing to the non-heating character of cow manure, it is 
well adapted to sandy land; and in consequence of the 
smaller quantity of vegetable matter to undergo fermen- 
tation, it has not the physically beneficial effects upon 
heavy lands. The value of cow-penning land and its 
permanent effects (sometimes noticeable for twenty or 

♦ Dana's Muck Manual, 
t Dana's Muck Manual. 



MANURES, THEIR KIiq'DS AJ^TD USES. 



33 



more years) is probably owing to the fact that none of the 
urine is lost. On light sandy land it is serviceable 
through the treading and compacting of the soil. 

The absence of cut-worms on land recently cow-penned 
is probably attributable to the mulch of dung and the con- 
sequent absence of vegetation in the late summer, and not 
to the urine, as is generally supposed. When a gardener 
owns a number of neat cattle, and is located conveniently 
on the salt marshes, he can collect a quantity of good 
manure, particularly well-suited to his sandy land, by 
penning his stock upon alternate layers of salt-mud and 
green marsh-grass. 

ANAI.TSES OF MARSH-GRASS, OAT-STRAW AND MEADOW HAY. COMPARA- 
TIVE MONEY VALUE ; HAY BEING ONE DOLLAR FOR THE SAME WEIGHT : 



Salt marsh grass. 

Oat straw 

Meadow hay 



ORGANIC 
SUBSTANCE. 




2^ 

OS: 

36.7 
37.4 
41.1 


1 

0.8 
0.6 
0.9 


Ratio of di- 
gestible Al- 
buminoids 
to Carbo- 
hydrates. 


Total. 

73.7 
81.7 
79.5 


^ . 

~39.7 
39.9 
47.4 


2.2 
1.3 
5.4 


1:176 
1:299 
1:79 



' S-: 



te) 



$0.68 
0.62 
1.00 



Barn-yard manure taken as a standard of comparison, 
the weights opposite the manures below show the num- 
ber of pounds which would be equal in effect to one hun- 
dred pounds of the former: 

Barn-yard manure 100 

Solid excrements of the cow 125 



Solid 

Liquid 

Liquid 

Mixed 

Mixed 

Mixed 

Mixed 



borse 73 

cow 91 

horse 16 

cow 98 

horse 54 

sheep 36 

hoff 64 



MANURE OF SVTINE. 



The urine of man and that of the hog contain phos- 
phates, of which that of the ox and horse is destitute. 



34 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 

The pig voids a linger quantity of urine than any other 
domestic animal The manure from fattening swine is 
very valuable, but it contains a peculiar volatile sub- 
stance which gives to roots and bulbs to which it is ap- 
plied a disagreeable taste. Hog-pens should be liberally 
supplied with absorbents. 

SHEEP MANURE 

contains less vegetable fibre than, that of cattle, and may 
be classed with hog manure; but the nitrogenous matter 
being more abundant, it is a heating manure when 
piled and moistened. If penned, one sheep can ma- 
nure ten and a half feet square in a.night. It is too 
rich in ammonia to be allowed to come in direct contact 
with seeds or the roots of plants, and should be composted 
or mixed with the soil. 

POULTRY MANURE. 

The dung of all domestic fowls and birds generally has 
marked manurial properties on account of the large 
amounts of ammonia and phosphate it contains. Like 
sheep manure, Peruvian guano and all other fertilizers 
rich in ammonia, it should not, in its fresh, undiluted 
state, be permitted to come in immediate contact with 
the roots of plants, nor with the seed. The floors of the 
poultry-houses should be strown with finely powdered 
muck or woods-earth and land plaster, to fix the ammonia 
and to purify the atmosphere. Subsequently the manure 
should be composted before being applied to the field. 

PERUVIAN GUANO. 

The Peruvian, the other South American and the Afri- 
can guanos being the accumulated dung of sea-birds which 



MANURES, THEIR KIl^DS AND USES. 35 

subsisted upon fish, contain considerable quantities of 
phosphate of lime from the bones, and ammonia from 
the flesh of the fish. According to the quantity of rain 
in the climate whence they are obtained, the amount of 
ammonia will vary. Their value depends principally 
upon the quantity of ammonia, which already exists, or 
may be formed by their further decomposition. Next to 
ammonia, the soluble phosphoric acid is the most valuable 
constituent, and after this potash is next in importance. 
Guano from the Chincha Islands contained from fifteen 
to twenty per cent, of ammonia; but notwithstanding 
the exhaustion of the entire supply, and that the guanos 
from other sources, as the Guanape, are poorer in am- 
monia, and contain more of the less valuable constituents, 
Peruvian guano retails at the former price. 

Proprietors of city stables make no provision to save the 
most valuable portion of the droppings of their stock — the 
urine — and gardeners near cities supplement their stable 
manure with strong, soluble commercial ammoniacal fertil- 
izers, by which, in a measure, they do away with the neces- 
sity of completely fermenting it. Their reliance is not 
mainly upon the fertilizer, and if they are sure of the am- 
monia, it is all they desire; but it is otherwise with those 
who have to depend chiefly upon the commercial article. 
Gardeners need not be chemists, but they need to profit 
by the experiments and scientific teachings of the chem- 
ist, or be swindled by the dishonest manipulator of the 
article upon which their success depends. The gardener 
who purchases an artificial fertilizer should know what 
element his land or crop requires. The law enacts that 
each package of a fertilizer shall be accompanied by a 
chemical analysis of its contents. The Agricultural De- 
partment of Georgia has published a tariff of values of 
the important ingredients in fertilizers, by means of which 
any one may calculate the approximate agricultural value 
per ton of any sueh fertilizer. (See Appendix.) These 



36 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 

values are not exact. The result of their use depends 
upon too many contingencies. These trade values are 
based upon the value of the ingredients in a fertilizer 
of assured merit. 

COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS. 

Appreciating the great importance to Southern agricul- 
turists, that they should make no indiscriminate and 
wasteful use of commercial fertilizers, nor be swindled 
by the knavery of dishonest manipulators, I enumerate 
below the conclusions, as advice, of one better able to 
tender it than myself. 

Prof. Atv/ater, of the Connecticut Experimental Station, 
reaches the following conclusions with respect to the use 
of artificial fertilizers: 

First. — Soils vary widely in their capacities for supply- 
ing crops with food, and consequently in their demand 
for fertilizers. 

Second. — Some soils will give good returns for manur- 
ing; others, without previous amendment, by draining, 
irrigation, tillage, or use of lime, marl, etc., will not. 

Third. — Farmers cannot afford to use commercial fertil- 
izers at random, and it is time they understood the reason 
why. 

Fourth. — The right materials in the right places, bring 
large profits. Artificial fertilizers, rightly used, must 
prove among the most potent means for the restoration 
of our agriculture. 

Fifth. — The only way to find what a soil wants, is to 
study it by careful observation and experiments. 

Sixth. — Success in farming, as in other business, re- 
quires the use of brains. 

The controversy between the advocates of home-made 
manure and of artificial fertilizers may be reduced to the 
following rules: 



MANUKES, THEIR KINDS AND USES. 37 

First. — ^0 land will remain fertile for a long number 
of years, if continuously manured with a special fertil- 
izer alone, but will require a rotation of manures, as well 
as of crops. 

Second. — Land, to respond properly to artificial fer- 
tilizers, must be well stored with vegetable matter. 

Third. — After the gardener has accumulated as large a 
pile of home-made manure as possible, by raking and scrap- 
ing into his compost heap every article fit for plant-food 
within his reach, let him supplement it with all the artific- 
ial fertilizers of the best quality (for he cannot afford to 
pay freight on sand and water, and other adulterations) 
that it needs, and that he can use upon his crops with 
profit. 

COTTON SEED. 

The chemical analysis of cotton seed shows it to be the 
most concentrated and nutritious cattle-food known; and 
experience has corroborated the fact. It is considered 
injurious to swine.* Cattle eliminate from it very little 
of the manurial elements, and their droppings, after the 
use of cotton seed as a food, as shown by Sir J. B. 
Lawes, form a manure of the best character. Their albu- 
minoids are not as ready to undergo fermentation, and 
therefore the ammonia is not so quickly available, as 
those of animal substances; it is therefore necessary that 
they shall have been fermented. If the truck-farmer be 
at the same time a cotton planter, or be located where he 
can conveniently procure cotton seed cheaply, he needs 
no other strong supplement to his manure pile. Should 
he desire to increase its efficacy for a special crop, an ad- 
dition of forty or fifty pounds of a good potash salt, or 
four hundred or five hundred pounds of an acid phos- 
phate per ton of the compost, would answer the purpose, 
if the cotton seed was about equal in weight to the for- 
mer. It is too rich to feed alone, and should be consid- 



38 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 

erably mixed with poorer food, as straw, shucks, etc.; 
but if the yegetable-grower be a stock-owner, he should 
feed as much cotton seed, or cotton-seed meal, as pos- 
sible, and save the droppings of the cattle. The best 
method of preparing cotton seed is to compost it with 
stable-manure, and prevent a too rapid fermentation. 

No country is so fortunate as the South in possessing 
in its cotton seed, for a long number of years considered 
a mere waste product, the best cattle- food and one of the 
best fertilizers in the world. If correctly appreciated, 
only the oil, which has no manurial value, would be ex- 
ported. While the stores of guanos are being exhaust- 
ed, the quantity of cotton seed grows with the increasing 
cotton crops. 

FISH SCRAP — FISH GUAITO. 

Moss-bunkers, or Menhaden {Alosa menhaden) are 
caught along the Atlantic Coast from Maine to Virginia, 
in immense numbers. The fish are boiled, and, after 
the extraction of the oil by compression, the more or less 
dried refuse, consisting of the flesh and bones, is sold 
under the above names as an exceedingly rich fertilizer. 
For the sandy coast lands, I have for years given it the 
preference over the best Peruvian guano, or any other 
commercial fertilizer. In a compost, it readily under- 
goes decomposition, changing rapidly into those com- 
pounds assimilable by i:^ants. Placed alone in the soil, 
particularly in a dry season, it does not become suffi- 
ciently decomposed, to make the phosphoric acid of the 
bones available. This article is so useful in supplying 
the manufacturers and manipulators of artificial fertil- 
izers with the most valuable ingredients of many of their 
compounds, and is by them so well appreciated, that not- 
withstanding the enormous quantities produced by the 
fisheries, it has been difficult to procure it of late years. 



MANURES, THEIH KINDS AND USES. 



39 



Along the coast of Florida large quantities of fisli offal 
may be made available. 

NIGHT-SOIL. 

Like other animal manures, night-soil varies in efficacy 
and composition in proportion to the richness of the food 
from whence it was derived. It is more nutritive than the 
dung of animals; but owing to the large quantity of water 
with which it is diluted, and its offensiveness, it is diffi- 
cult of transportation. 

In so far as nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash are 
concerned, human excrements compare with the average 
of excrements of horses, cows, sheep, and swine, as 
shown in the following table :* 





SOLIDS 


>. 


URINE 




OXE TON (2,000 POUNDS). 


a 

1 




-si 

•n 


o 

HO 




1 


lbs. 

Human 20.0 

Mean of horse, cow, sheep, and swine 1 9.4 


lbs. 

21.8 

6.2 


lbs.! lbs. 
5.012.0 
4.3 22.5 


lbs. 
8.7 
0.4 


lbs. 

4.0 

25.4 



One ton of the fresh, solid excrement, contains more 
than twice as much nitrogen as a ton of fresh mixed 
animal dung; the urine of man contains nine times as 
much phosphoric acid as that of horses, etc., and proba- 
bly nearly all the nitrogen is in available condition. 

Lawes and Gilbert found that an adult male voided in 
the course of a year, fsecei:;, ninety-five pounds; urine, 
one thousand and forty-nine pounds, or one thousand 
one hundred and forty-four pounds of excrement in the 
pure state. 



* Harris's Talks on Manures. 



40 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 

These contain: 

Dry substance faeces, 231 lbs..- urine, 34^ lbs.; total, 58f lbs. 

Mineral matter " 2h '' '' 12 " " 14i " 

Carbon " 10 '' " 12 " " 22 " 

Nitrogen " 1.2 " " 10.8 " " 12 

Phosphoric acid " 0.7 '' " 1.93" " 2.63'' 

Potash " 0.24" " 2.01" " 2.25" 

One hundred pounds of the dry substance of the fasces 
contain fiye pounds of nitrogen and five and one- 
half pounds of phosphates. One hundred pounds of 
the dry matter of urine contains twenty-seven pounds of 
nitrogen, and ten and three-fourths pounds of phos- 
phates. City night-soil should be promptly incorj)orated 
with stable manure upon its arrival, and that of the 
farm should be mixed with dry, fine muck, woods-earth, 
or garden soil, by which the ammonia wdll be absorbed 
and its offensiveness avoided. This muck, or earth, 
Avhen dried, may be repeatedly used for the same purpose. 
Should the quantity be deficient, a little plaster might be 
added. 

In the earth closets, the dry earth, before using, con- 
tained in five tons, sixteen and seven-tenths pounds of 
nitrogen; after being used 

Once 5 tons of dry earth contained 24.0 lbs 

Twice 5 " " """ " 

Three times 5 " " " 

Four times.. 5 " " 

Five times.. 5 " " 

Six times. ...5 " " 

Owing to its great solubility, night-soil is especially 
adapted to growing early vegetables. The commercial 
fertilizer, poudrette, is night-soil, which has been dried in 
pans, and mixed with charred earth, peat, charcoal, or 
ground peat and plaster. It is variable in quality in pro- 
portion to the care with which the escape of ammonia 
may have been prevented; the best, compared with cow- 

*Dr. Gilbert. 



24.0 


lbs. 


nitrogen 


36.3 






44.6 






54.0 






61.4 






71.6 




<' * 



MANURES, THEIR KINDS AND USES. 41 

dung, in respect to the quantity of ammonia being rated 
as four to one. 

MUCK. 

When successive generations of plants have grown 
and, with the leaves from surrounding forest trees, have 
decayed on the same low, swampy soil, the vegetable mat- 
ter increases so rapidly that, with the exception of that 
supplied by the decaying mass, very little mineral mat- 
ter is mixed with it. The mud from the bottom of a 
pond, in or around which no plants grow, consists merely 
of the washings from the higher ground, and deposits 
from the water, and must be of inferior quality. It is 
evident that muck must be very variable in quality, ac- 
cording to its origin. The best, besides imparting valua- 
ble humus to the soil, contains four per cent., or even 
more, of nitrogen. In some instances, on the sea coast, 
a rich deposit may be subject to overflow at spring tides, 
which, receding, leave marine animals that will fur- 
ther enrich it. An application to plants of such muck 
alone, imparts the dark green color to the leaves so in- 
dicative of ammonia. It should be dug and be permitted 
to dry out several months before being used, or it may 
be mixed with lime at the rate of three or four bushels 
to the ton of muck. There is no better absorbent for the 
earth closet, the poultry house, the stable, the cow pen, 
or the manure pile than salt-marsh muck. It may be 
drilled in with any artificial fertilizer. Woods-earth, or 
leaf mould, is still better as decayed vegetable matter, 
and as a source of humus. 

SUPERPHOSPHATE OR ACID PHOSPHATE OF LIME. 

Phosphoric acid is, next to ammonia, or the nitrates, 
the most important element of plant food, and it is also, 
next to nitrogen, the earliest to become exhausted in 
soil. It exists in all plants, in most soils, combined with 



42 TRUCK-FARMIXG AT THE SOUTH. 

vegetable matter, in all excrementitious matter, and in 
the tissues and bones of animals. Bones consist of 
phosphate of lime, or bone earth and gelatine. 

Phosphoric acid and lime unite in three different pro- 
portions. In common bone earth there are three equiv- 
alents of lime to one of phosphoric acid, and this salt of 
lime is called the tricalcic phosphate, or three-lime phos- 
phate. This is not soluble in pure rain water. Large 
bones, as is well known, remain for ages buried in the 
ground, and are only very slowly dissolved by the car- 
bonic acid in the water. The next is the reverted, or 
dicalcic, or two-lime phosphate, consisting of two equiv- 
alents of lime to one of phosphoric acid, which is also 
insoluble. The monocalcic, or one-lime phosphate, con- 
sists of one equivalent of lime and one of phosphoric 
acid, and is the acid-j^hosphate, or superphosphate of 
lime of the agriculturist, and is soluble in water. 

The manufacturer is enabled to present this valuable 
soluble fertilizer to agriculture by treating bones, or the 
South Carolina phosphates, the poor phosphatic guanos, 
the coprolites, or any other mineral tricalcic phosphate 
of lime, with sulphuric acid, or oil of vitriol. This re- 
moves two equivalents of lime (as plaster or sulphate of 
lime), converting it into the one-lime, or superphosphate. 

The surest source of phosphoric acid is finely-powdered 
bone meal. One ton of this contains, in its gela- 
tine, as much nitogen as eight and one-half tons of 
fresh stable manure, and twenty-three per cent, of it is 
phosphoric acid. Bone meal is slowly soluble in the soil 
by the action of carbonic acid. For vegetable growing it 
should be decomposed in the manure pile, and supplied 
at the rate of five hundred pounds to the acre. 

The manufacturer mixes finely-powdered fish-scrap, 
nitrate of soda, or some other more or less nitrogenous 
substance with his superphosphate, and produces his 
^'ammoniated superphosphate." This mere manipula- 



MAKUKES, THEIR KINDS AKD USES. 43 

tion the gardener may undertake more cheaply at home, 
and with greater satisfaction. 

Phosphatic fertilizers are especially beneficial to root 
and bulb crops. 

More or less of the insoluble phosphates may be mixed 
with and sold in the superphosphate. These haye little 
practical value to the general agriculturist, and none to 
the gardener. 

During the fermentation of the bone meal in the ma- 
nure pile, which is accelerated by the gelatine, soluble 
nitrogenous organic compounds and salts of ammonia 
are produced.- These act quickly and powerfully as fer- 
tilizing agents, and render the phosphate more soluble. 

POTASH. 

No vegetable can grow without potash, for it is a con- 
stituent of every plant. Its presence has been proved to be 
necessary for the formation of starch in the leaves; and 
the experiments of Lawes and Gilbert have pointed out 
that it aids leguminous plants, like clover, in assimilat- 
ing nitrogen, which they contain so largely. It results 
in soils from the disintegration of minerals, and is less 
apt to be absent, particularly in heavy soils, than either 
nitrogen or phosphoric acid. 

ISTeither the land of the truck-farmer near a city, nor 
any other land, which has been, even only moderately, 
enriched with the dung of domestic animals and accom- 
panying vegetable matter, needs any special application of 
potash. If a crop, even of potatoes, fails on such soils, it 
will be owing either to a deficiency of the more important 
elements of plant food, or to other unfavorable contingen- 
cies, as of weather, tillage, drainage, etc,, rather than to 
a lack of potash. But on light lands frequently manured 
with exclusively nitrogenous manures, like fish scrap, 
Peruvian guano, etc. , and cropped with potatoes, or some 



44 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 

other vegetable exhaustive of potash, an application of a 
salt of potash either alone, or of a fertilizer largely con- 
taining it, becomes indispensable. All potash salts, be- 
ing exceedingly soluble, are liable to be leached out of 
sandy land. A crop of one hundred and fifty bushels of 
Irish potatoes will remove from the soil, in the tubers, 51.3 
lbs. of potash, 1.44 lbs. of phosphoric acid, and 30. 6 lbs. of 
nitrogen. Formerly the ashes of hard-woods was nearly 
the only, and limited source of potash; but recently the 
kainit mines in North Germany, near Stassfurt and Leo- 
poldshall, provide this element in enormous quantities. 
The lower grades contain a constituent, the chloride of 
magnesium, which is actually injurious to plant growth. 
Years ago, like J. H. H. Gregory of Marblehead, Mass., I 
had an experience which showed the detrimental effects 
of this salt in the ruin of a potato crop. Mr. Gregory 
mixed a compost of twenty-eight bbls. of hen manure, 
twenty-eight bbls. of dry, rich soil, twelve bbls. of fine 
ground bone with three bbls. of kainit. This was allowed 
to heat twice before it was applied, at the rate of two quarts 
to the hill, and according to his custom, cabbage seed 
was sown in the field, on each hill. The seed sprouted; 
but the little seedlings were killed as soon as the first 
rootlets reached the fertilizer. As large quantities of this 
kainit are being introduced into the South, statements by 
Prof. Atwater (American Agriculturist, Vol. XXXVI, 
No. 11) are here given as a warning against the improper 
or indiscriminate use of the lower grades of these potash 
salts: *^ The mines at Stassfurt, Leopoldshall and Wes- 
teregeln are from six hundred to one thousand two hun- 
dred feet deep, and the area of deposit is calculated at 
six hundred square miles. The salts, as taken from the 
mines, contain only a small pro^oortion of potassium com- 
pounds, the bulk consisting of materials which have com- 
paratively little agricultural value, and are sometimes 
positively injurious. They are, therefore, subjected to 



MAITURES, THEIR KINDS AN'D USES. 



45 



chemical treatment, by which the potash compounds are 
more or less completely purified. As prepared for mar- 
ket, the potash fertilizers contain potassium in the form 
of either chloride of potassium, or sulphate of potash, 
and, along with these, other compounds, as shown by the 
following figures from circulars of the German manu- 
facturers: 

COMPOSITION OF THE GERMAN POTASH SALTS. 



BBAKCS OF POTASH SALTS. 



1. Crude kainit 

2. Crude sulphate of potash (dung salt) 

3. Prepared kainit 

4. Crude sulphate of potash— magnesia.. .. 

5. Five-fold concentrated salt (chloride), . ., 
»>. Purified sulphate of potash 

7. Purified sulphate of potash 

8. Purified sulphate of potash— magnesia,.. 



POTASSIUM AND OTHER COil- 
POCKDS.— LBS. IN 100 LBS. 



C<3 



-§1 

So. 



lbs. lbs. 

17-26 
18-22 
21 
29-33 



70 

90-95' 

54-57 



80-85 






/6s. 

10-12 

16-20 

16-18 

17-22 

1-2 

5-10 

3-6 

34-38 






lbs. 









lbs, t lbs. 



14-17 32-40 9-14 
2-4 35-50 9-12 
36-42 13 
30-35 15-18 



2-4 
3-5 



12-16 
5-10 
1-2 
1-2 



50-52 
38 

50-52 
28-30 



^'All these brands contain other than potash compounds. 
Of these the sulphate of magnesia may be valuable, since 
it is useful as plant food, and further, aids in diffusing 
the potash through the soil and thus bringing it within 
reach of the roots of plants. The chloride of sodium, or 
common salt, though not needed for plant food, is useful 
in rendering other materials available, and hence is often 
quite valuable as a fertilizer. For certain crops, how- 
ever, like potatoes, sugar beets, and tobacco, it is apt to be 
detrimental; probably on account of the chlorine which 
it contains. The chloride of magnesium may be in- 
jurious. Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4, in the table, are low grade 
articles, furnishing only nine to eighteen per cent, 
of actual potash. The crude kainit, No. 1, is the ma- 



46 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 

terial as dug from the mines and ground. The prepared 
kainit, No. 3, is made by roasting the crude kainit. 
The * dung salt ' No. 2, is a waste product, formed 
in the manufacture of the high grade articles. Nos. 5, 
6, 7, and 8, are high grade articles of two kinds, viz., 
the chlorides or ^muriates.' In No. 5, the potas- 
sium is combined with chlorine, as chloride of potas- 
sium, or '^muriate of potash,' and in the sulphates, 
Nos. 6, 7, 8, it is combined with sulphuric acid, as 
sulphate of potash. Little of No. 8 is manufactured. 

*' It is becoming customary to characterize these salts by 
the percentages of sulphate or chloride of potassium they 
furnish. Thus an ' eighty per cent, sulphate ' is one 
that contains eighty lbs. of sulphate of j)otash in one 
hundred lbs. of the salt. An ^ eighty per cent, muriate ' 
would contain eighty per cent, of chloride of potassium. 

MOST DESIRABLE GRADES FOR OUR USE. 

" It is clear that for this side of the Atlantic, the high 
grades must be the most economical as potash fertilizers. 
The sulphates are, on the whole, preferable; but the po- 
tassium in these is more costly than in the chlorides. 
The chlorides sometimes injure the burning quality of 
the tobacco leaf, decrease the amount of sugar in sugar 
beets, and of starch in potatoes, and make the latter less 
' mealy ' than is desirable. The sulphates, on the other 
hand, are always safe. For buckwheat, corn, wheat, 
oats, and other grains, for leguminous crops and grasses, 
and for wet soils, the chlorides are preferable because 
cheaper. Generally speaking, the most desirable grades 
will probably be : 

^'For sulj)liates: the highest grades which contain from 
seventy-five to ninety per cent, or more, of sulphate of 
potash, corresponding to from forty to fifty per cent, of 
actual potash. 



MAKUEES, THEIR KII^DS AND USES. 47 

^'For chlorides: the ' muriate ' witli eighty to eighty-five 
per cent, of chloride of potassium, corresponding to 
fifty to fifty-three per cent, of potash. 

^"^By the above table, the amount of actual potash in 
the low grade salts, yaries from nine to eighteen per cent. 
Some of the salts sold in this country have yielded as low 
as seven to eight per cent. The disadvantage in purchas- 
ing these j^oorer articles is a double one. Not only do 
they furnish very little potash, the bulk being, made up 
of other and inferior or injurious compounds; but the 
purchaser has to pay the cost of freight and handling of 
this extra material between the mines in Germany and 
his farm. 

'^ The method of applying potash salts is of great im- 
portance. Cases are common, — I have known several 
myself, where crops were injured or destroyed." 

Professor Atwater proceeds to recommend that the salt 
be uniformly diffused through the soil, and not concen- 
trated in single spots, that ic be applied in the fall for the 
next season's crop, so that the rains may have an oppor- 
tunity to distribute it through the soil; or that it be com- 
posted with muck, farm refuse, or earth. Doubtless the 
chloride of magnesium could thus be rendered harmless. 

In another volume of the '^American Agriculturist," 
Prof. Atwater says: '^Analyses of potash salts by Prof. 
Johnson, chemist of the Connecticut Board of Agricul- 
ture, and by Prof. Goessmann, State Inspector of Fer- 
tihzers in Massachusetts, agree entirely with Prof. Stor- 
er's, and ours, in showing that a large amount of the 
German potash salts imported into this country are of 
the poorer grades. This is a ^ serious evil, which needs 
to be known — and to be corrected.' As long as farmers 
will buy low-priced potash salts, and other fertilizers, 
because they are 'cheap,' and pay no regard to the 
actual quality, they must expect to get poor wares at dear 
rates, and have poor success in using them." 



48 



TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 



Ashes are the product of combustion, and in their ef- 
fect are somewhat similar to that of decaying and mould- 
ing vegetable matter. When the use of potash is indi- 
cated, and ashes of hard-wood can be obtained, they are a 
safer and much more satisfactory and effective fertilizer 
than the German potash salts; for they contain all the min- 
eral elements of plant food which the tree had derived from 
the soil. They are, of course, void of nitrogen; but tend to 
render nitrogen and other soil ingredients available. 
They also amend the physical condition of heavy soils, 
and are adapted to those of sandy character. Measures 
should be devised to save the ashes of cities as manure. 
A bushel of unleached ashes weighs about forty-eight 
pounds; a *^ struck" bushel of leached ashes, fifty- 
seven pounds, and one ^Mieaped," about seventy-one 
pounds. A dressing of fifty bushels of unleached ashes 
to the acre, at forty-eight pounds to the bushel, would 
give two hundred pounds of potash; seven hundred and 
sixty-eight pounds of lime; one hundred and twenty 
pounds of magnesia; forty-eight pounds of phosphoric 
acid, and thirty-six pounds of sulphuric acid. 



Wood Ashes, 
100 lbs. contain 
071 the averaae 


Potash, lbs. 


Lime, lbs. 


Magnesia, 
lbs. 


Phosphoric 
Acid, lbs. 

2 


Sulphuric 
Add. lbs. 


Unleached 

Leached 


7 to 10 
1 to 2 


33 
25 


5 

3,/, 


IVa 

Vs 



QUICK-LI3IE. 

Ammonia is not produced in organic matter until pu- 
trefaction commences, when nitrogen and hydrogen com- 
bine in the jDroportions of one to three to form it. 

If quick-lime is added before the process begins, the 
lime unites with the nitric acid, and forms nitrate of 
lime, fixing or retaining the nitrogen; bat when the lime 
is added to stable manure in fermentation, or to Peruvian 
guano, or to ground fisli- scrap, or to any other substance 
containing ammonia, the ammonia escapes into the air. 



MAI^UEES, THEIR KIIfDS AN'D USES. 49 

and is lost. We may see this take place, if we lieat de- 
caying vegetable matter with, lime, or witness it if we 
mix giiano and quick-lime together in the palm of the 
hand, and smell the escaping ammoniacal gas. A good 
soil may, without any recent manuring, contain three 
thousand or more pounds of nitrogen per acre in the first 
six inches of depth, or as much as is contained in three 
hundred and thirty-three tons of fresh horse manure, and 
yet require a fresh application of soluble nitrogenous 
manure to bring a satisfactory crop to maturity. The rea- 
son is, that the above large amount of nitrogen is locked 
up in the soil, existing in unassimilable combinations, in 
short, is unavailable. Professor Johnson found only 
sixty-three pounds of available nitrogen in four thousand 
six hundred and fifty-two pounds of a soil per acre, at 
the depth of twelve inches. 

Every arable soil contains a sufficiency of lime for the 
direct needs, as plant food, of any crop; and while the 
cereals, or grain plants, contain less of lime, both in 
grain and straw, than any other crop, they especially re- 
quire nitrogenous manure, and to these the general agri- 
culturist applies it freely. Now, a simple dressing of 
lime has been known to double the yield of grain on a 
soil containing unavailable nitrogen. 

It would require too much space to mention the chem- 
ical changes lime undergoes from its condition as carbon- 
ate of lime in rock or shells, until, as caustic lime, it 
exerts its strange power, or to attempt an explanation of its 
extraordinary effects, not yet fully understood, upon the 
various constituents of the soil. 

Suffice it to say: First. — It renders stores of vv'ealth in 
the soil available to crops. Second. — It neutralizes acids 
in the soil which might be injurious to vegetation. 
Third. — It rapidly decomposes vegetable matter in the 
soil, and renders its elements fit for plant food. Fourth. — 
It amends the physical texture both of heavy clays and 



50 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 

sandy land. Fifth. — It aids and promotes the produc- 
tion of nitric acid, and forms the soluble nitrate of lime. 
Sixth. — It hastens the maturity of crops. Seventh. — It 
is supposed to form combinations in the soil which at- 
tract nitrogen from the atmosphere — probably silicate 
of lime. 

Notwithstanding all these advantages the truck-farmer 
v/ill rarely have recourse to lime. Near the city his large 
supply of manure will render its use unnecessary. Only 
in case of an emergency, an unexpected lack of manure, 
and on heavy land, would he be warranted in bringing 
out the latent power of his soil by a heavy application. 
Small quantities might be desirable occasionally. Its use 
must impoverish the soil to the extent of its decomposi- 
tion, and, if persisted in, the complete removal of organic 
matter and of ammonia; and the gardener who farms 
with less stable-dung, or near the coast, rarely gets a 
sufficiency of vegetable matter incorporated with his 
sandy soil. 

" Lime and lime without manure 
Will make both land and farmer poor," 

Neither lime nor ashes should ever be mixed with dung, 
Peruvian guano, poultry manure, or any other organic 
fertilizer upon the soil, unless there be present sufficient 
muck or earth to arrest and absorb the escaping am- 
monia. 

Lime is applied at the rate of from twenty-five to two 
hundred bushels per acre. One hundred bushels would 
add about one half of one per cent, to a soil six inches 
deep. 

COMMON SALT. 

Chlorine and soda are more or less the constituents of 
every plant. Salt (chloride of sodium) is a combination 
of chlorine and the metal sodium. Soda is a compound of 
oxygen and sodium. Common salt is the source of the 



MAJEURES, THEIR KINDS AND USES. 51 

soda compounds. Every soil, and every animal and 
vegetable manure, contain this salt, and generally in 
sufficient quantity for the direct needs of most plants. 
Storms may blow the salt-spray of the ocean fifty miles 
inland. The coast lands, the Gulf and Atlantic shores, 
of Florida, must be abundantly supplied with it to meet 
the direct wants of a crop. 

Plants which naturally live upon the sea shore, like 
asparagus, generally abound in salt, while in others it may 
exist as a mere trace. In beets it forms nearly one-third 
of the ash; in potatoes seven, and in carrots six per 
cent. In all roots it is generally a prominent constituent. 
Plants will therefore respond differently to its applica- 
tion. While an asparagus bed will bear a heavy dressing, 
the same quantity would destroy most other cultivated 
plants as effectually as it does the weeds among the 
asparagus plants. It needs therefore to be used carefully, 
five or six bushels to the acre being enough, to be applied 
either broadcast,, if fine, or in compost, if coarse. It in- 
creases the brightness and strength of the straw, and the 
yield of grain in the cereals. Its effects on fertile soil, 
already supplied with a sufficiency for the use of the crop, 
demonstrates the fact that it exerts an influence upon 
other fertilizing agents, decomposing them and rendering 
them available. The moisture it attracts from the at- 
mosphere through its hygroscopic power must also be a 
great benefit to sandy soil. 

GYPSUM — LAND PLASTER. 

This, which is the sulphate of lime, can supply 
plants with sulphuric acid and lime; both of which, 
however, are generally found in soils in sufficient quan- 
tity for the needs of most crops. Where clover may be 
grown as a green manure or for feed, it is a useful fertil- 
izer; but otherwise the market-gardener will rarely use 
it, unless he incorporates it in his manure pile to fix the 



52 



TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 



t^mmonia as sulphate. Where the potato-rot prevailed, 
gypsum has been known to show worse results than any 
other application; probably owing to the moisture it at- 
tracted from the atmosphere. 

NITRATE OF SODA AND THE AMMONIA SALTS. 

These are the most concentrated nitrogenous fertiliz- 
ers, and in their pure state are to be sparingly and care- 
fully applied, so as not to come in direct contact either 
with seed or the roots of plants. To increase the 
strength of stable manure, particularly such as is defi- 
cient in liquid excrement, or of compost, there is nothing 
better than these salts, to be added to the former just 
before its application. They may also be carefully sown 
broadcast at the rate of one-fourth to one-half a ton, in- 
timately mixed with fine muck, woods-earth, or soil, to 
insure an even distribution. The best to use will be such 
as supply the gardener with nitrogen at the cheapest 
rate. The following table presents the present market 
prices, their proportion of ammonia, and their calculated 
value, according to the now existing high yaluation of 
ammonia in fertilizers — twenty-five cents per pound: 



Nitro- 
gen. 



Eqriiva- 
lent to 
Am- 
monia. 



Nitrate of soda |q'^ 

Nitrate of potasb 1 7 /^'n 

Carbonate of ammouia ol'^n 

Muriate of ammonia 01 on 

Sulphate of ammonia 1 21.20 



19.20 

16.6 

21.50 

31.00 

25.75 



Calcula- 
ted Value. 



S96.00 
83.00 
107.50 
155.00 
128.60 



It must be borne in mind, however, that these salts 
are not chemically pure, but contain about ten per cent. 
of impurities, which may or may not have any agricul- 
tural value. 

In nitrates of soda and potash, the nitrogen exists in 
the available form of nitric acid, but is more apt to be 
lost by leaching than the ammonia in the other salts. 



MAKUEES, THEIR KIHDS AKD USES. 53 

The carbonate has too high a yahie as a drug to allow it 
to be used by the gardener, except perhaps on a very 
small scale, and experimentally in the green-house. 
For such crops as are grown for their leayes, as cabbage 
and spinach, these salts are admirably adapted; but in 
the case of potatoes, large doses, as the physician would 
say, are contra-indicated. 

LIQUID MAJEURE. 

In China and Holland, liquid manuring for the most 
valuable crops is extensively practised. As the urine of 
all animals is much richer than the solid excrements 
(that of the horse containing thirty-one pounds of ni- 
trogen to the ton, whereas the solid excreta only contain 
nine pounds), it has a relatively higher agricultural 
value, and should be saved with care proportioned to its 
efficacy. The nitrogen being in a more available form, 
if applied to crops in the liquid state, it will be more 
valuable in consequence of its solubility. When plants 
have reached the stage of rapid and steady growth, ap- 
proaching maturity, their vital energy and the absorptive 
power of their roots will enable them to profit wonder- 
fully from an application of liquid manure, for which 
reason the cauliflower and the cabbage are treated to 
food in this form just before the former is expected to 
^' curd," and the latter to head. 

When seedling plants have to be watered at the time 
of transplanting, a weak liquid manure would help them 
to start better than pure water. 

Urine is too ^^ strong" to be allowed to come in direct 
contact with seed or with roots, and should first be al- 
lowed to ferment, and then be diluted with five or six 
parts of water. In its fresh state it contains no am- 
monia, this being formed from urea after putrefaction 
has commenced. 

Solid manure may be steeped in water until the latter 



54 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 

has assumed a dark clear color, when the liquor may be 
used, or Peruvian guano, at the rate of a quarter pound, 
or any of the ammonia salts, at the rate of two ounces 
dissolved in a gallon of water, may be substituted. 
Liquid manure should be applied just before a rain; at 
any rate, the soil should be moist, as there is then no 
danger of the liquid passing through the soil and be- 
yond the reach of the roots. One gallon of water is 
capable of absorbing one thousand one hundred and fifty 
gallons of gaseous ammonia. Owing to its inconvenience, 
truck-farmers rarely use liquid manure. 



CHAPTER IV. 
THE ROTATION OF CROPS. 

It is as advantageous for the market-gardener as for 
the general agriculturist to grow his different crops in 
succession. Various theories have been proposed to ex- 
plain the phenomena attending the growth of certain 
crops on the same soil for a number of successive years. 

Chemical analysis shows that, while all plants are com- 
posed of nearly the same elements, they exist in each 
kind in varying proportions. It is supposed that a plant 
requiring for its full development more of one inorganic 
element than another, exhausted the soil of the former to a 
greater or less degree, and rendered that gradually unfit for 
its own continued growth, while a different plant, somewhat 
differently constituted, would still find in the soil all the 
elements it required for its maturity in sufficient quantity, 
and in an available condition. 

When it was ascertained that, if all the elements known 
to be taken from the soil by a certain crop, were returned 
to it in fertilizers, and even more of these than it had 
lost, the crop still continued to depreciate, the theory of 
exhaustion of the soil then failed to be a satisfactory solu- 



THE ROTATIOlSr OF CROPS. 55 

tion. De Candolle and others then supposed that the 
necessity for a rotation of crops was attributable to the 
fact that plants, during growth, throw off excrementitious 
matters by their roots, which, they agreed, were injuri- 
ous to a following crop of their own kind, but not to 
others. Exceptional cases, as that of the onion, would 
have to be accounted for upon the hypothesis that that 
plant either did not excrete from the root, or if it did, 
the matter eliminated was not detrimental to itself. 
Others supposed that the decaying fibrous roots might be 
injurious. Whether or not either of these theories alone 
correctly explains the phenomena of rotation, the practice 
of rotation remains the best possible method of keeping 
the soil clean, mellow, and in the best attainable condi- 
tion for the production of remunerative crops with the 
least cost of manure. 

It is doubtless true here, as in many other matters per- 
taining to agriculture, that circumstances may, to a cer- 
tain extent, modify a general rule. In the treatment of 
land of different kinds and textures the farmer should 
be an empiric as little as the physician. The fact that 
rotation may, for a limited number of years, be unneces- 
sary on deep alluvial soils, or on heavy clays,^with, or 
without manure, may not suffice to upset a general prac- 
tice as old as agriculture itself. 

Joseph Harris in his " Talks on Manures," while dis- 
cussing the results of the interesting experiments of 
Lawes and Gilbert on the heavy clay soil of ^'Rotham- 
sted," and probably basing his observations too upon ex- 
perience with his own clays, says: '^ The old notion that 
there is any real chemical necessity for a rotation of crops 
is unfounded. Wheat can be grown after wheat, and 
barley after barley, and corn after corn, provided v/e use 
the necessary manures, and get the soil clean and in the 
right mechanical condition." In other i3arts of his val- 
uable book he says: *^ A light sandy soil will not pre- 



56 



TEUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 



serve manure like a clay soil." — (p. 177.) *^ On light 
sandy soil, siicli an annual dressing of manure (fourteen 
tons barn-yard manure per acre) would, in the course of 
a few years, make the land too rich for wheat.*' — (p. 176.) 
^^On sandy land, the manure will decompose more 
rapidly, and act quicker than on clayey or loamy land." 
— (p. 295.) ^^To what, then, is the power of soils to 
arrest ammonia, potash, magnesia, phosphoric acid, etc., 
owing? The above experiments lead to the conclusion 
that it is due to the clay which they contain. Pure 
sand was found not to possess it." — (p. 218.) ^'^A 
London clay contained about seven thousand pounds of 
ammonia per acre, equivalent to the quantity contained 
in seven hundred tons of barn-yard manure." — (p. 221.) 
" Clay mixed with manure arrests, or checks decomposi- 
tion. Sand has no such effect. If anything, it favors a 
more active decomposition, and hence, manure acts much 
more rapidly on sandy land than on clay land." — (p. 268.) 

A table by Lawes and Gilbert shows the produce of 
wheat per acre on the clay soil of Eothamsted for twenty 
consecutive years without any manure: 



SEASON". 


Tear. 


Bushels. 


Pecks. 


First 


1843 

1844 
1845 
1846 
1847 
1848 
1849 
1850 
1851 
1852 
1853 
18.54 
1855 
1856 
1857 
1858 
1859 
1860 
1861 
1862 


15 
23 
17 
16 
14 
19 
15 
15 
13 
5 
21 
17 
14 
19 
18 
18 
12 
11 
16 
17 




Second 


Oi 


Third 


3f 


Fourth 


3i 


Filth 




Sixth 


1 


Seventh 


3i 


Eii,4ith 


8i 


Ninth 


31: 


Tenth 


3i 


Eleventh 


A 


Twelfth 




Thirteenth 


2 


Fourteentli , . . 


3* 


Fifteenth 




Sixteenth 


li 


Seventeenth 


3i 


Eighteenth 


1* 


Nineteenth 




Twentieth 


1 



THE EOTATIOK OF CROPS. 57 

The weight of the grain of the first crop was fifty- 
eight and five-tenths pounds per bushel, and that of the 
twentieth, or last, was sixty-two and seven-tenths pounds 
per bushel, so that after continuous cropping, without 
manure, the land produced in the twentieth year two 
and one-fourth bushels more per acre, and the wheat 
weighed four and one-fifth pounds more per bushel than 
the first season. 

Can there be a doubt that on any other than a heavy 
clay soil the results of these experiments would have 
been different ? Is there a soil on the southern sea coast, 
void of clay, which, after continuous cropping for twenty 
years without manure, would produce more oats or rye 
(wheat requires clay) or any other crop, to the acre, than 
it would the first season ? If so, to what is the exhaus- 
tion of our cotton plantations to be attributed? Better 
farming, or cotton seed, cow peas and rotation might 
have preserved their fertility. 

Neither the areas, nor the varieties of crops of the truck- 
farmer are suffic^'ent to enable him always to practice 
regular courses of rotation; nor should a lack of manure 
ever compel their strict observance, but he should aim : 

First. — To have a crop which succeeds another as dis- 
similar in composition and the demands it makes upon 
the soil as possible. 

Second. — Never to have plants of the same family suc- 
ceed each other. For instance, melons should not follow 
cucumbers; tomatoes should not follow egg-plants, or 
Irish potatoes; beans should not succeed peas, or vice 
versa. 

Third. — Tuberous plants should not be allowed to fol- 
low plants of the same character. 

Fourtli. — Eoots should not succeed to root crops, as 
turnips, beets, etc. 

Fifth. — Deep or tap-rooted plants should succeed 
others of similar growth. 



58 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 

Sixth. — To make the heaviest applications of manure to 
such crops as require most, as cabbage, onions, etc; and 
have other crops succeed those requiring less, as tomatoes, 
egg-plants, etc., so that the whole farm may be gradually 
brought to the same degree of fertility. 

As the crops of the truck-farmer come in for ship- 
ment during spring and early summer, there is rarely 
an opportunity of haviog a second crop occupy the same 
ground, before the first is harvested; still it may occur. 
Thus a crop of melons or cucumbers may be put in be- 
tween the wide rows of peas. The latter will be off be- 
fore the former requires the first working. 

A further benefit of successive rotation and continued 
cropping is the destruction of noxious weeds, and of such 
insects as prey for more than one season on the roots of 
a particular kind of crop, by depriving them of their 
food. 

A continued liberal use of the same fertilizer, although 
it be the complete stable-manure, will eventually show 
less favorable results, than when manures are alternated. 
Owing to a too limited use, this will not frequently 
happen on our truck-farms; but it may occasionally occur 
near cities, where, after a series of heavy manurings Avith 
stable-manure or night-soil, the land seems to crave 
something else. A resort in such a case to a good com- 
mercial fertilizer will remedy the evil and increase the 
crop. 



WEEDS. 59 

CHAPTER V. 
WEEDS. 

Plants, according to their manner of growth, are either 
exogenous (outside growers), their bulk being augmented 
by layers next to the inner bark; or endogenous (inside 
grovvers), which increase from the centre, the new growth 
pressing the older outwards. 

All the trees of the United States, with the exception 
of the Palmetto, are outside growers. The Asparagus is 
an example of an inside grower. 

The stem of an outside grower consists of the outer 
bark, the inner bark, or liber, the sapwood or alburnum, 
the heartwood and the pith. The medullary rays connect 
the pith horizontally with the inner bark through the 
wood. 

When a seed germinates, it sends its radicle down into 
the ground and its sprout (plumule) up into the air. The 
root obtains from the soil crude sap, containing solu- 
tions of gases, earths, and salts, which ascend through 
the sapwood to the leaves. Leaves may be considered a 
continuation of young bark, and in plants, which are 
naturally leafless, the young bark performs their office. 
Leaves are provided on their upper and lower surfaces 
with breathing pores, or stomata; and those plants grow- 
ing in moist and shady places, are most abundantly 
supplied with them, and the pores are of larger size. 
The outer skin, or epidermis, of thick-leaved plants 
grooving in hot, arid situations, like the aloe, the prickly 
pear, and the purslane, have few and small breathing 
pores, and the skin is still further protected by a waxy 
covering. AVhen the sap reaches the wide expanse of sur- 
face of the leaves, it comes in contact with air, heat, and 
light, the crude sap is digested and the excess of water 



60 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 

is eyaporated through the breathing pores, mainly of the 
ui^perside of the foliage. Leaycs absorb gases, and un- 
der some circumstances moisture, from the atmosiohere 
through the stomata of their lower surface. It is not 
necessary to discuss the chemical changes brought about 
in the leaves, my object being merely to demonstrate 
their great imj^ortance, and to show that whatever tends 
to injure their health and vigor, tends to destroy the 
plant. 

The digested sap, made available through the action of 
the leaves for the support of the plant, descends and dis- 
tributes its nourishment wherever it may be needed in 
the interior of the plant. A plant, constantly deprived 
of its leaves, could no more continue to live, than an ani- 
mal devoid of skin with which to perspire, lungs with 
which to breathe, and stomach with wiiich to digest, 
and there is no exception to this rule, which applies 
alike to endogens as exogens. Therefore any weed may 
be destroyed, if frequently hoed down, and some may 
be killed if cut down only once. 

The crops of the truck-farmer, however, should be 
kept so well stirred that most of the weeds with which he 
has to contend are killed before they appear above the 
ground. Two of our worst weeds, the "Wormseed {Cheno- 
poclium ambrosioides, var. anthehninticum), and Dogfen- 
nel {Eiqxdoriinn fmniculaceiim) must be eradicated when 
young, or they will become troublesome by sprouting 
from the deep roots. Even our worst pest, 

i^UT-GRASS — COCO-GRASS ( Cypevus rotundus, 
var. Hydra), 

can be destroyed, if constantly hoed, or plowed and 
raked out, but owing to the depth of its growth and to 
the abundance of nuts, each of which has several eyes, 
to clear any considerable area by hoeing, Avould cost more 
than the land would be worth. If a piece of land over- 



WEEDS. 61 

run with nut-grass is to be cleared and will grow cow 
peas, these should be sown at the rate of two and a half 
bushels to the acre, as soon in the spring as possible, and 
be plowed under before the shedding of the leaves ad- 
mits any light and air to the soil. These should be fol- 
lowed by a second crop of peas, and the latter by one of 
rye. If this round is repeated, there will be little, if any, 
nut-grass to be seen at the commencement of the third 
season, but a third year may be required to kill it. If a 
mulch is laid upon the ground six or eight inches, or 
more, in thickness, nut-grass will push its way through; 
but the stems upon which the young nuts are formed will 
not penetrate the earth deeply; and, if the mulch has 
partly rotted in contact with the soil, they will remain 
upon the surface, or so near it, as to be destroyed to a 
great extent, by firing the covering material during dry 
weather. A second or even a third mulch may be neces- 
sary to be completely effective. Nut-grass is propagated 
by the nuts; and if the growth above ground is constantly 
interrupted, and it is not allowed to bloom, it is doubt- 
ful whether the nuts can come to maturity. 

BERMUDA GRASS ( Cynodou Dactylon) 

may be destroyed in the same manner as nut-grass; but 
an easier and cheaper method may be adopted with this 
plant, as it may be killed out by repeatedly plowing and 
raking during hot and dry weather, particularly iu heavy 
ground with clay subsoil. Neither this nor the nut-grass 
matures seed in the United States. 

PURSLAKE {Portulaca oleracea.) 

This weed spreads an extraordinary number of fine seeds 
over a place, if allowed to mature, and it should be de- 
stroyed when young. Owing to the nature of the leaf and 
the paucity of stomata, this plant may be upon the sur- 



62 TRUCK-FAKMINQ AT THE SOUTH. 

face for days in the hot sun without dying. The same 
is true, but to a greater degree, of 

THE PRICKLY PEAR {Opuiitia vulgaiHs,) 

which is occasionally an annoyance on high grounds near 
the coast, and on the Sea Islands. It must be dug up 
and removed from the land. It will require a hot wood 
fire to kill it. 



CHAPTER VI. 



SEED AND SEED SOWING. 



Every seed is provided with an embryo, the vitality of 
which remains dormant so long as the carbon which the 
seed contains is not eliminated, by forming carbonic acid 
with oxygen during the process of germination. The 
composition of a seed is less liable to vary than that of 
any other part of a plant. 

One of the most wonderful works of nature is the pro- 
vision made for the perpetuation of the species, whether 
of animals or vegetables. Every seed germ, or embryo, 
is really a plant in miniature, having its stem and leaves 
in a more or less undeveloped state. 

If kept dry and excluded from air and its oxygen, the 
duration of its vitality differs with various seeds. If the 
seed of any given plant, which ordinarily retains its 
vitality for an extended period, is, when fully matured, 
thoroughly dried, and perfectly protected from contact 
with air and moisture, there is no reason why it may not 
retain its vitality for many years. Prof. Lindley says: 
" Not to speak of the doubtful instances of seeds taken 



SEED A^B SEED SOWIKG. 



63 



from tlie pyramids having germinated, melon seeds have 
been known to grow at the age of forty years, kidney 
beans at one hundred, sensitive-plant at sixty, rye at forty, 
and there are now (1859) growing, in the garden of the 
Horticultural Society, raspberry plants raised from seeds 
sixteen hundred or seventeen hundred years old." 

There is considerable difference of opinion between ex- 
perimenters in regard to the duration of vitality in agri- 
cultural seeds under ordinary climatic influences; but it 
probably depends upon the comparative condition of the 
seed and the influence of the different climates of their 
respective countries. The table below shows the earlier 
experiments of Cobbett in England, and the later ones of 
Vilmorin in France. 



Artichokes 

Asparagus 

Bean 

Bean (Kidney). 

Beet 

Broccoli 

Cabbage 

Carrol 

Cauliflower 

Celery 

Corn 

Cucumber 

Egg-plant 

Endive 



Cobbett. 


Vil- 


Years. 


morin . 
Years. 


3 


5 


4 


4 


2 


6 


1 


3 


10 


5 


4 


5 


4 


5 


1 


4 


4 


5 


10 


- 


3 


2 


10 


5 


3 


- 


4 


9 





Cobbett. 
Years. 


Kale 


4 


Leek 


2 


Lettuce 


3 


Melon 


10 


Onion 


2 


Okra 


2 


Pea 


2 


Pumpkin 

Radisli 

Salsify 


10 
4 
2 


Spinach 


4 


Squash 

Tomato 


10 

2 


Turnip 


4 



ni- 

morin. 
Years, 

5 
2 
5 
5 

2 

4 
5 
5 
2 
5 
5 
5 
5 



Southern vegetable-growers must bear in mind that 
our warmer climate, particularly on the moist sea coast, 
will affect the longevity of seed. Onion seed, for instance, 
cannot be relied upon after the first year; those of the 
varieties of cabbage and of turnip after the second, and 
those of cucurbitaceae, as melon, squash, cucumber, etc., 
after the fourth year. Some seeds lose their germinating 
power, if allowed to become dry, as will those of the wil- 
low two weeks after ripening. Experience teaches us that 
fresh seeds of cucumbers, melons, etc., produce plants 



64 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 

that are lilfely to run to vine, while older seed yield 
more abundant croj^s of fruit. Some English horticul- 
turists carry the cucumber seed they intend to plant in 
hot-beds, in the pockets of their pantaloons for months 
prior to planting, in the belief that the warmth of their 
bodies increases the productiveness of the vines. Hoav- 
ever this may be, it is a safe rule that seed should be 
fresh. Old seeds, endowed with weaker vitality, are 
slower to germinate; they come up irregularly, and too 
large a percentage is absolutely sterile. Seed of ten-weeks 
stock, four years old, is used by gardeners to produce 
plants to bear double flowers, while fresh seed produces 
the more perfect single flowers. Such being the case, only 
fresh tomato seed should be used; as the double flowers 
produce irregularly- shaped, knobby fruit, while it is 
only the single flowers that form the desirable round 
and smooth fruit. 

The chemical elements in an im23erfectly matured 
seed seem unstably combined. If such germinate at all, 
it will be sooner than seeds fully ripe; but the plants will 
be of weaker growth, owing, probably, to an insufficient 
storage of nourishment. Such unripe seeds will also be 
the earliest to become sterile. Some yegetable physi- 
ologists believe that immature seeds will produce earlier 
varieties than the mature. There are many facts in 
regard to the distribution and germination of seeds, 
which appear unaccountable and wonderful. After the 
destruction of forests by fire, certain plants will sj)ring 
up in large numbers, although no parent jjlants of the 
same species may have been growing in the vicinity. 
The unavoidable conclusion is, that the seed had re- 
mained in the soil for years, awaiting favorable condi- 
tions for its development. Plants, unlike any in the 
vicinity, have grown m the soil excavated from deep 
wells; thus the upper crust of the earth seems full of 
seeds. Every Southern farmer, who has cleared land. 



SEED AND SEED SOWIN"G. 65 

knows that a growth of oak or other deciduous trees will 
follow pine, and vice versa. It seems as if nature would 
thus demonstrate the principle of rotation of crops. 
Theory seems to be unable to explain how seeds can re- 
main dormant in the soil for years, under conditions 
apparently favorable to germination. 

THE QUALITY OF SEEDS. — TESTIN'G. 

Its" plumpness, its specific gravity or density, rather 
than its size, is an indication of the quality of a seed; 
and it will generally sink in water. No one matter is of 
more importance to the horticulturist, than the quality 
of the seed he sows, not only in reference to the certainty 
of vegetating, but also to its being true to variety. Our 
well-known seed merchants, as a general rule, doubtless 
seek to send out sound and reliable seed; but they are 
compelled in some instances to depend for a supply of 
special kinds upon seed-growers personally unknown to 
them, and may themselves be deceived. In an expe- 
rience of twenty-six years I have found, however, a con- 
siderable difference in the comparative trustworthiness 
of some of the leading and most extensive seed dealers. 
A few of the smaller firms, and of less extended repu- 
tation, frequently gain the custom of Southern druggists, 
and often of retail dealers, by granting the privilege of 
returning the stock which remains unsold in their hands 
after the spring sales. In some instances such seeds may 
be good and true; but having suffered losses from their 
use, I warn Southern growers against their purchase. 

The surest way to avoid disaster is to make a prelimi- 
nary test of any suspicious seed. It is not necessary to 
commit the seed to tlie ground. Dr. Nobbe, of the 
Tharand, Saxony, Seed Control Station, has devised a 
simple apparatus of earthenware for the purpose. To 
test seeds, I place a sample, folded in a ]3iece of moist 
cloth, or blotting paper, at the bottom of a small com- 



66 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 

mon flower-pot, wliich is plunged in the soil of another, 
one or two sizes larger, and a third pot, filled with earth, 
of the size of the first is placed within the second. If 
the soil of the two pots is kej)t damp, the seed, if good, 
will germinate, and can, from time to time, be conveni- 
ently examined. By thus testing his seed, the gardener 
may ascertain the percentage, sure, under proper man- 
agement, to come u]3, and may regulate his sowing ac- 
cordingly. 

If seeds are to be preserved and retain their proper 
vitality, it is indispensable that they should be com- 
pletely ripe, and be kept perfectly dry. They should 
be inclosed in cloth bags, and suspended in a dry room. 
Imported seed should not, as is frequently done, be sent 
to our warm climate packed in hermetically-closed me- 
tallic cases. Neither the seed, nor the thick paper gen- 
erally used in packing being sufilciently dry, the con- 
fined moisture will cause a commencement of germina- 
tion, and the heat generated by the process, and the 
moisture, is very apt in such cases to destroy the vitality 
of all. 

Seeds of home growth that are subject to injury from 
weevils may be preserved in jugs, demijohns, etc., in 
which a piece of gum camphor, a little cyanide of po- 
tassium (a most deadly poison), or an open phial of tur- 
pentine has been inserted. 

THE GERMINATION" OF SEEDS. 

As the absence of moisture, warmth and air is 
necessary to the preservation of the vitality of seed, so 
the presence of these agents is essential to excite their 
vital forces, and cause germination. In this process the 
outer covering of the seed softens, and allows the em- 
bryo to swell; water is decomposed, and the carbon forms 
carbonic acid with its oxygen. In the case of sterile 
seed the softening and swelling occur without any de- 



SEED AiTD SEED SOWING. 67 

composition of water. In the presence of a superabund- 
ance of moisture, fresh seeds may absorb more water than 
they are able to decompose, and the death and subse- 
quent rotting of the germs take place; for this reason 
it is more advisable to sow in dry than in wet weather. 

The degree of heat necessary to start vital action varies 
in different species, and depends upon their character 
and composition, and the climate to which the plants 
were indigenous. 

The most favorable temperature of the soil for the 
germination of seeds of plants from cold climates, may 
be stated at from fifty degrees to fifty-five degrees; 
for those of green-house plants, at from sixty to sixty- 
five degrees, and for those of the torrid zone, at from 
seventy to eighty degrees. 

Of all the seeds sown by the truck-farmer, those of 
the onion will germinate at the lowest temperature; other 
conditions being favorable, they will sprout at a few de- 
grees above freezing, while those of the melon and egg- 
plant require a higher temperature. Healthy seeds of 
some species may be exposed to a remarkably high de- 
gree of tem}3erature without impairing their vitality. 
Seeds of raspberry have been known to grow which had 
been picked from a jar of jam which must have been 
heated to the degree of boiling syrup, or two hundred and 
thirty degrees. 

To promote germination, seeds are sometimes soaked 
in water heated to within a few degrees of the boiling 
point, or about two hundred degrees, but this is only prac- 
ticable with hard and healthy seed. The practice of 
soaking seeds in water to soften the outside covering, or in 
an alkaline solution having a strong affinity for carbonic 
acid, or a substance able to supply a large quantity of 
oxygen, like a dilute solution of oxalic acid, is only ad- 
visable when the difPerence of a few days in the time of 
germination is important, as for instance, in the case of 



68 TRUCK-FAKMIKG AT THE SOUTH. 

the loss of a previous planting by frost; otherwise it is 
better for the gardener to commit his seed to the sfronnd 
under as favorable conditions as 2:»ossible, and trust to the 
usual natural process. 

HOME-GEOWK SEEDS. 

While it is a matter of true economy for the farmer to 
purchase as little as he may, and sell as much as he can, a 
non-observance of which rule has often been the fault of 
the Southern planter; we are compelled by the effects of 
our climate to purchase the majority of our vegetable 
seeds of either foreign or Northern growers. Half the 
success of growing profitable crojDS depends upon the 
seeds, and we can better afford to jiay treble the price for 
those which, from experience, we know to be good and 
true, than to grow them ourselves, and find too late that 
they are worse than useless. Again, many vexations from 
buying poor seed may be avoided by growing such as are 
indigenous to warm climates, and maybe produced cheaply 
and of superior quality. There is no reason, for instance, 
why the Southern truck-farmer should not save his own 
seed of melons, squashes, cucumbers, onions, jDcpper, to- 
matoes, and egg-plants, provided he can keep each of the 
first named three far enough apart from any other species 
of the squash family to prevent mixing, while it is 
not advisable for him to use his own seed of cabbage, cauli- 
flower, etc. ; of beets, carrots, turnips, etc. ; for the 
former will run prematurely to seed without forming 
heads, and the roots of the latter will be of inferior 
quality, becoming small and woody. It is so difficult to 
preserve large quantities of garden peas and snap beans 
against injury from weevils, from the time they mature, 
through the summer, to the following spring, that, al- 
though I have seen peas of home growth satisfactorily 
tested along side of those grown in Canada, both in ref- 



SEED xii^U SEED SOWlNa, 69 

erence to earliness and productiveness^ I would not ad- 
vise tlie saving of these. 

Plants like the sugar cane, the sweet and Irish potato, 
which have been propagated exclusively for years from 
cuttings or tubers, cease bearing matured seed. The 
potato does occasionally produce seed; but more fre- 
quently at the North than at the South. Should seed of 
Southern production be desired for the creation of new 
varieties, it might be possible to induce some of the late, 
not very productive, varieties to perfect seed by prevent- 
ing the plants from bearing tubers, by their removal 
while small. This will encourage the flow of nutritive 
matter to other parts, just as contrary wise, the removal 
of flowers will increase the size of tubers. 

CAUSES OF FAILURE. 

If, after a seed is cou signed to the soil, the changes 
which it undergoes during germination proceed without 
interruption, the young plant will in due time make its 
appearance in a healthy state; but when severe changes 
in the state of the weather occur, it may perish. If all 
seeds sprouted as promptly and with as much vigor as 
those of the radish, there would be little uncertainty at- 
tending seed sowing; but many varieties, large and 
small, remain in the ground from a few days to several 
weeks, during which interval unpropitious changes of the 
weather may occur; a fall of temperature sufficient to de- 
stroy the barely sprouted seed below the surface may 
supervene; or the weather may become so wet as to rot the 
seed before germination has taken place; or the sun may 
heat the soil sufficiently to scorch the young sprouts 
at or above the surface; or, finally, the ground may be- 
come so baked by the sun after a rain, as to prevent 
smaller seed from breaking through the hard crust. In 
case of sowing small seeds, like carrot, celery, etc. , which 
are slow to germinate in ground likely to bake, they may 



70 TRUCK-FA RMIKG AT THE SOUTH. 

be covered with mould or sand free from such tendency. 
Large seeds, possessed of more vigor, may be able, when 
germination has once commenced, to upheave a consid- 
erable weight of soil, and break through the crust. This 
baking of the soil is a most prolific cause of failure and 
disappointment. 

None of the seeds of the truck-farmer need be sown 
broadcast, as drill sowing, either by hand or with a ma- 
chine, is to be preferred. The seeds may be sown more 
regularly; the young plants may be thinned and weeded 
more conveniently, and the soil may be stirred between 
the rows. The drill distributes the seed more evenly, at 
a uniform depth, and the oj)eration may be performed 
during the prevalence of high wind. There are a num- 
ber of seed-drills now offered which do good work. Some 
of these are so arranged that they may be converted into 
hand-cultivators, and be used for weeding the crop after 
the plants are up. 

No safe rule can be established, as to the depth at 
which different seeds should be sown, as the weather and 
varieties of soil must be considered. If continued damp 
weather could be assured, the rule to cover the seed to a 
depth equal to its own thickness, might be a safe one. 
In such case seeds would germinate, if merely laid ujdoii 
the surface, although darkness is more favorable for the 
formation of carbonic acid, and therefore for germina- 
tion. In this matter, the sower must in each instance 
be governed by the character of his seed, and by the con- 
ditions of weather and nature of soil which obtain at the 
time. While on heavy land, and during damp weather, 
a grain of corn would grow, if barely covered; in a dry 
climate and a very sandy soil, it might be necessary to 
place it one foot below the surface, as is sometimes the 
case in Colorado. Seed should never be sown, particu- 
larly on sandy soils, when the ground, from previous 
drouth, is very dry below, with the surface only moist 



HOT-BEDS, COLD FEAMES, AN'D WEATHER. 71 

from recent rain; for if rain does not follow, the seeds 
may perish after germination has merely commenced; or 
the lower soil may be too dry a little later to supply the 
young root with suflQcient moisture. Should soaked 
seed be sown under such conditions, in the hope of assist- 
ing germination, the dry soil may absorb the moisture 
from the swollen seed, and probably the vitality of all be 
destroyed. At whatever depth the seeds are sovv^n, the 
soil should have been carefully broken up or *^ fined" be- 
fore sowing, using the harrow, roller, and rake, as cir- 
cumstances may require. After the seeds are sown, the 
surface should be rolled, in order to bring the soil in 
close contact with the seed. Where the seed-bed is 
small, the same end is accomplished, if the soil is 
*^ firmed" by patting it with the back of the spade. 
Mr. Henderson strongly advocates the use of the feet to 
bring the soil in contact with the seeds, or *^ treading 
in," as it is called. A person passes over the line of the 
drill, and tramps or presses the soil down with his feet. 
This is a method practised by some, but I have never 
seen that it had any advantage over the even pressure of 
the roller. 



CHAPTER Vn. 



HOT- BEDS, COLD FRAMES, AND WEATHER. 

Seneca and Pliny inform us, that the Romans attempted 
the forcing of vegetables by means of artificial heat, 
using thin plates of talc or mica in lieu of glass. As a 
rule, the first vegetables and fruit of a season bring the 
best prices, and the grower is prompted to use all availa- 
ble means to push forward his crops to early maturity. 
Florida, being more exempt from frosts than other States, 



72 TRUClv-FAKMING AT TUE SOUTU. 

can place upon tlio market any vegetable that, in less 
favored sections, requires glass, earlier, more plentifully, 
and with less cost than the gardeners of more Northern 
States. Since Florida gardeners have taken up truck- 
growing for the Northern markets, those in the vicinity 
of Charleston and Savannah require less glass than for- 
merly. Hot-beds are rarely required as far south as 
Charleston and Savannah to forward and protect tender 
seedlings, like tomatoes, egg-plants, peppers, etc. Cold 
frames, under proper management, not only suffice for 
this, but are preferable. When any animal or vegeta- 
ble matters undergo rapid fermentation with partial ad- 
mission of air and moisture, a considerable amount of 
heat is evolved, and the gardener takes advantage of 
this chemical process in his forcing operations. In 
the management of crops under glass, and the removal, 
of young and tender plants to the open ground, his 
knowledge and observance of the changes of the weather 
will serve him better than in any of his other operations. 
In the vegetable kingdom, the heat of the sun is the cause 
of growth, and its light that of maturity. Animals may 
live with little or no light, but no vegetable can come to 
perfection without it. The sun's rays are both those of 
heat and light. Were it not for the wise prevention of 
the accumulation upon the earth of the heat received 
from the sun, all life upon our globe would be destroyed. 

DEW AKD FROST. 

Evaporation and radiation of heat into space from the 
earth during the night, when it receives little in return, 
accomplish this purpose; and these means are the source 
of benefit. When the surface of the earth has, by this 
radiation of heat, become colder than the surrounding air, 
the moisture of the air is condensed upon it in the form 
of dew, as when moisture appears on the outside of a 
glass of ice- water, or upon a gun-barrel, etc. , upon being 



HOT-BEDS, COLD FRAMES, AND WEATHER. 73 

brouglit from the cold outside air into a warm room. The 
value of dew to vegetation is manifested in such dry rain- 
less seasons, as those of 1880 and 1881. This moisture 
gathers where it is most needed, on low plants, the roots 
of which do not penetrate the earth deeply, and on foliage 
near the ground. The precipitation of moisture uj)on 
tender vegetation, must diminish the cold which occa- 
sioned it, and thus i^revents the injury that might arise 
from that cause. The partial prevention of cold on 
an object near the ground, by the interposition of a 
screen between it and the sky, is due to the reflection of 
heat by the lov>^er surface of the screen back to the object. 
This compensates in part for the loss by radiation. 

The gardener avails himself of this, in protecting his 
plants in cold and clear nights by the interposition of 
screens, which are most effective when not in contact 
with the vegetation to be protected. Clouds similarly 
prevent injury from cold at night, by radiating heat to 
the earth in return for what they intercept from the 
earth. The lower the clouds the more effective they are. 
Fog, or clouds of smoke, have the same effect as clouds 
of vapor. Coast lands and islands, from their situation, 
are more subject to a cloudy sky, to movement in the 
air, and are therefore less exposed to cold by radiation; 
but the chief reason why islands are more temperate than 
continents and inland situations, is, that the water of the 
ocean, a little below the surface, is uniformly in all lati- 
tudes about 45°. Florida as a long peninsula, with an 
ocean east and west, and Bermuda, as evidenced by her 
extremely early crops, although lying in the same lati- 
tude as Savannah, enjoy these advantages in an eminent 
degree, besides having the warm waters of the Gulf 
Stream flowing near their coasts. The cooling of a 
body exposed on a clear night, depends in part upon 
the readiness with which it receives heat by conduction 
from bodies warmer than itself in contact with it. 
4 



74 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 

Bodies thus exposed must radiate as much heat during 
a wind as in a calm, but in the former case the con- 
stant contact of warm air will return to them nearly as 
much heat by conduction, as they lose by radiation, and 
only a slight agitation of the air is sufficient to thus pre- 
vent dew and frost. The reason why depressed locations 
suffer most from cold by radiation is, that they are more 
becalmed; and there must also be less dew in them, because 
of the calm atmosphere which provides the moisture. It 
is true that at considerable altitudes the air becomes colder 
as the hight increases, but on hills, in cold and clear 
nights, the frosts are less severe in consequence of the 
movement in the atmosphere. The dew, which has been 
deposited upon vegetation by condensation from the at- 
mosphere, will become hoar or white frost, when the 
object upon which it has settled is cooled by sufficient 
radiation to congeal the water into crystals of ice. This 
can only occur in this latitude up to 44° F. of the sur- 
rounding atmosphere; or in other words, frost is impossi- 
ble, unless the thermometer falls as low as 44°. 

The different effects of the several solar rays are yet 
imperfectly understood; but there is no doubt that the 
heating and illuminating rays produce different results. 
Plants supplied with heat and moisture may grow for a 
short time in darkness; but there will be no development 
of chlorophyll, or leaf -green, and they cannot thrive. 
Plants, in all stages of growth, need the presence of at- 
mospheric air, from the seed requiring oxygen for its 
germination, to the plant which acquires its chief supply 
of carbon from the air. Water is absolutely necessary in 
the economy of vegetation. 

The management of plants under glass, whether they 
are to be transferred to the open ground or not, requires 
an a'^quaintance with the effects of these various agents 
and phenomena, so that they may be made to harmonize 
in the production of a sturdy and healthy vegetation. 



HOT-BEDS, COLD FRAMES, AND WEATHER. 75 

If a relative excess of either is permitted, failure is cer- 
tain. A spindling growth will result from too much 
light or heat; too luxuriant growth from an excess of 
moisture and. heat; and the plants are apt to damp off 
from much moisture and deficient light. 

Having succeeded in producing satisfactory plants, it 
is the policy of the gardener to transfer them to the 
field as early in the spring as possible. 

IMPORTANCE OF WEATHER OBSERVATIONS. 

The study of atmospheric changes has in all ages been 
pursued by men engaged in agriculture and the pasturage 
of animals. To put out his plants judiciously, the gar- 
dener must carefully observe the general season. The 
belief in any direct effect of the moon upon vegetation, 
is a mere superstition of the past. At full moon the 
reflected light amounts to ^/^^^^^^ of the sun's bright- 
ness, not equal in intensity to that reflected by a white 
cloud in a summer's day; and the heat at the same 
phase reaches only "/loooooo ^^ ^ degree. It is now gen- 
erally denied that the moon has any effect upon the 
weather; yet observations extending through many years 
seem to warrant the belief that changes of the weather 
do more frequently occur at the moon's phases than 
at any other time.* At any rate during fair weather 
radiation is most active in consequence of the clear sky 
attending full moon; and the gardener will do well to bear 
in mind the great likelihood of an appearance of frost at 
that change of the moon, about the time in spring he de- 
sires to transfer his plants to the open ground, and to 
delay the operation until it has passed. 

After a warm rain, if the wind comes out strongly from 
the north-west, a reduction of temperature will follow 
and a frost during the night becomes probable, if the wind 

♦See Loudon's Ee cyclopaedia, p. 445. Toaldo's 48 Years' Observations. 



76 TRUCK-FAEMING AT THE SOUTH. 

lulls before morning. No reliance can be placed upon 
warm weather at the time of rain; for the rapid fall of 
the thermometer under the aboye circumstances, is some- 
times astonishing. Thus after a rain at one o'clock P. 
M. of April 3rd, 1879, the thermometer stood here (Wil- 
mington Island) at 75° F., and under the preyalence of 
a north-west wind during the evening and early night, it 
fell 36°, giving us a killing frost on the morning of the 
4th, at 39° at sunrise. Frost occurred also on the 
fifth and sixth, at 39°. 

Among the many creatures that, like the swallow, have 
been thought to announce the advent of spring, I consider 
the appearance of the Tumble-bug {Ateuclius inUilarms) 
and the Whip-poor-will, or Chuck-wilFs-widow, the most 
trustworthy. I have rarely known a frost to occur after 
hearing the voice of this bird in proclamation of the 
spring. 

Below is a table of last frosts of the spring for a num- 
ber of successive years on this and the adjacent Island of 
Whitemarsh, taken from the diary of the late R. T. 
Gibson, who kept a meteorological record for the Smith- 
sonian Institute. 

1835.— March 29th, cold wind from the N. W.; March 
30th, frost; April 7th, said to have been frost, but saw 
none. 

1836.— March 21st, rain; 22d, cold; 23d, frost. 

1837. — March 4th, snow, five inches deep; April 7th, 
rain; 9th, wind N. W. ; 10th, frost. 

1838. — March 18th, cloudy; 19th, clear and cold. 

1839.— March 5th, wind N.; 6th, sleet; 30th, rain, 
wind N. ; March 31st, sleet and rain. 

1840.— March 12th, rain; 13th, wind K W., frost; 
March 25th, rain, wind W. ; 26th and 27th, frost. 

1841.— March 16th, rain and hail; 17th, wind N. W.; 
18th, frost; 20th, frost; April 14th, light frost. 

1842.— February 21st, cloudy; 22d, wind N. W.; 23d, 



HOT-BEDS, COLD FEAMES, AND WEATHER. 77 

white frost; 24th, frost; March 23d, Melia Azedarach 
(Pride of India) in bloom; April 7th, Blackberries ripe; 
April 17th, hail the size of half -grown wild plums. 

1843.— March 27th, rain; 28th, wind N. W; 29th, ice 
and frost. 

1844.— March 7th, rain; 8th, wind N. W.; ther- 
mometer at sunrise 44°; 9th, 42°; March 20th, rain; 
22d, wind W., frost. 

1845.— March 24th, rain; 25th, therm. 42°; 26th, 
frost; April 10th, therm, at sunrise 43°, frost. 

1846.— March 14th, rain, wind N. W. afterwards; 15th, 
16th, and 17th, frost, therm. 38°. 

1847.— March 26th, rain; 27th, wind JST. W., therm. 
35°; 28th, therm. 35°, frost. 

1848.— March 13th, rain; 14th, therm. 37°, wind K 
W.; 15th, wind JST. W., therm. 32°; 16th, therm. 31°, 
ice; April 9th, rain; lOth^ cold but no frost. 

1849.— March 20th, rain; 21st, wind N. W., no frost. 

1850.— March 23d, rain; 24th, wind N. W., therm. 
39°, cold but no frost; 27th, rain; 28th, therm. 39°, 
wind N. W.; 28th, rain; 29th, frost. 

1851.— March 16th, rain; 17th, therm. 46°, wind W.; 
19th, therm. 44°, wind N. W.; 20th, therm. 34°, heayy 
frost; 28th, first Chuck-will's- widow. 

1852. — March 17th, rain last night; 19th, rain at day- 
light; 20th, therm. 32°, wind N. W., heavy frost; 25th, 
first Chuck-will's-widow. 

1853. — March 4th, rain at 7 A. m. ; 5th, rain; 6th, 
therm. 35°, frost; 7th, therm. 34°; 21st, first Chuck- 
will's-widow. 

1854. — March 23d, rain last night, wind N. W.; 24th, 
therm. 54°, wind N. W.; 25th, wind N". W; 26th, therm. 
40°; 27th, frost; April 1st, rain; 2d, therm. 45°, wind 
N". W.; 3d, therm. 37°; 4th, frost, therm. 40°; 6th, first 
Chuck-will's-widow. 

1855.— March 27th, rain; 28th, wind K W., therm. 



78 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 

38°, too much wind for frost; 29th, therm. 30°, ice; 
April 14th, first Chuck-will's-widow. 

1856.— March 2Gth, cloudy, wind W.; 27th, wind N. 
W.; 28th, ice; April 7th, first Chuck- will's-widow. 

1857.— April 6th, rain, wind S. W.; 7th, wind K W., 
therm. 40°, frost; March 29th, first Chuck-will's-widow. 

1858.— March 5th, therm. 37°, frost; April 8th, first 
Chuck-will's-widow. 

1859.— March 18th, rain; 19th, therm. 44°, wind N. 
W.; 20th, frost, but light — several times in April only 
prevented by wind; April 4th, first Chuck-will's-widow. 

I860.— March 27th, cloudy; 28th, wind W.; 29th, 
heavy frost; April 5th, first Chuck-will's-widow. 

1861.— March 18th, rain; 19th, wind N", W., snow; 
20th, therm. 39°, frost; April 10th, first Chuck-will's- 
widow. 

It will be seen from the above, that cold weather was 
invariably either preceded by rain, or cloudy weather, 
the probability being that there was rain somewhere in 
the district. 

TO MAKE A HOT-BED. 

The material most frequently used for the formation 
of hot-beds, when a considerable degree of heat is re- 
quired, is stable manure, that of well-fed horses being 
the most effective. When a lower temperature suffices, 
a steady heat may be obtained by mixing vegetable mat- 
ter, like leaves, spent tan bark, etc., with the stable ma- 
nure. I have used with advantage a layer of our long 
moss {TiUandsia tcsneoides), about one foot thick, below 
one of stable manure, for forcing sweet potato draws, or 
sets. This moss, when taken up at the end of the season 
and cleaned, was in as merchantable a condition as black 
moss. The manure, without too much litter, should be 
thrown from the stables into a conical heap, and kept 
moist for four or five days, when it should be turned 



HOT-BEDS, COLD FRAMES, AND WEATHER. 79 

over. After the lapse of four or more days, according 
to the season, it will have acquired a steady heat, and be 
ready for use. The site for a hot- bed, or cold frame, 
should be on sandy, or gravelly, or well-drained soil, con- 
venient to water, well protected from north and north- 
west winds; it must be free from overhanging trees aud 
the shade of houses, but open to the sun from its rising to 
its setting. Unless the aspect of the bed be a point or 
two eastward of south, the plants grov/ing at the e:ist- 
ern end will be dwindled by the shade of the frame. 

The site having been chosen, the manure is placed 
either on the surface, or in an excavation, about six inches 
deep, in the shape of a solid parallelogram, extending in 
length and breadth, one foot beyond the dimensions of 
the frame to be placed upon it. Each layer of manure 
is evenly and moderately beaten down with the back of 
the fork, until about three feet thickness is attained, care 
being taken to have the pile uniformly moist throughout. 
The frame with glass is then put on, and air is given only 
during the day, unless the weather is warm, when it may 
be admitted during the night. After two or three days, fer- 
mentation will recommence, when the bed will be ready to 
receive its coating of six inches or more of garden soil for 
seed, for the forcing to maturity of cucumbers, etc. The 
frame should be as wdde as the length of the sash, and its 
length will be determined by the number of sash. No bed 
should be constructed, if avoidable, for less than four 
* lights," and the longer it is, the more heat will be de- 
veloped, and the more in amount will be retained. 

In whatever manner the frame is made; whether the 
planks, which should be one and one-half inch thick, 
are nailed to corner posts, driven into the ground, or 
secured by battens, the chief outlook is, to have it fit 
closely in all its parts, and to have the sash adapted to it 
so snugly, that there will be no openings for the exit of 
warm, or the entrance of cold air. 



80 TEirCK-FARMI2!TQ AT THE SOUTH. 

A sufficient pitch will be secured to carry off the waxer, 
if the back is two feet, and the front one foot high. On 
each end of the frame a strip should be nailed to retain 
the two outside sashes in position. Each two sashes 
(Should be separated by a half-inch strip, nailed upon a 
three-inch-wide sliding piece, which latter is let flush 
into the ed^^e of the back and front, and will leave one 
and one-fourth inch upon which the sashes are to rest and 
shde. If a small grooye is made along each edge of the 
middle strip, the water will be carried off more effectu- 
ally. The drip into the beds is sometimes damaging. 

If the site is exposed to high winds, yellow pine is 
preferable to white pine for the sash, on account of its 
greater weight. The sash should be three by six feet, 
with glass not larger than eight by ten. The smaller the 
glass the less expensive the breaks. The panes are to be 
puttied to the sash, and to overlap each other like shin- 
gles. As dust collects between them and obstructs the 
light, the laps should not be more than one-fourth of 
an inch wide. 

COLD FRAMES Al^D THEIR USES. 

Such is a hot-bed. The site, the frame, and the sash 
for a cold frame are as above described. The difference 
between the two is solely, that the former is heated by 
fermenting material, which creates "bottom heat," while 
the latter is warmed by the confined heat of the sun alone. 
For a cold frame, the soil should be elevated six inches 
above the general level, and finely spaded up and raked. 

Glass is the proper material for sash, and the cheapest 
in the end. Frames covered with cotton cloth may be 
used as a substitute, however. To render the cloth more 
translucent, the following ingredients may be used: one 
quart pale linseed oil, four ounces resin, and one ounce 
sugar of lead. The sugar of lead should be ground with 
a little of the oil, then the remainder of the oil and 



HOT-BEDS, COLD FKAMES, AND WEATHEB. 81 

resin, melted together, should be added, and the yarnish 
applied with a wide brush while warm. 

The following directions apply to the cold frame alone: 
According to the nature and size of the seed, and the 
character of the soil, the seeds are to be sown from one- 
fourth of an inch to an inch deep in drills, three or four 
inches apart across the bed, and more thinly at the back 
and front, than near the middle of the bed. Each va- 
riety should be sown in separate cold frames, or, when 
not practicable, only such should be sown together, as 
require about the same degree of heat to germinate, and 
particularly such as demand the same management and 
protection, until the plants are remoyed. Thus egg- 
plants should not be sown in the same frame with to- 
matoes, nor the latter with cabbages and cauliflowers, 
while the latter two may go together with lettuce in the 
same frame. If the weather is dry, and the soil sandy, a 
watering after sowing may be required to germinate the 
seed. 

In the subsequent management, it must be borne in 
mind, that retardation for the production of stocky 
plants, rather than acceleration of growth, is an object, 
provided the seeds were sown sufficiently early. Damp- 
ness and heat produce an elongated rather than a healthy 
growth, and too much of either must be avoided. The 
glass is to be used only as a means of protection against 
the inclemency of the weather. In case of heavy rains, 
the sash should be pushed down sufficiently to carry o5 
the water beyond the confines of the frame. During 
severe freezing weather, particularly in clear nights, when 
radiation is most active, the covering of glass alone will 
sometimes be inadequate to protect even as hardy a plant 
as cauliflower, and some opaque covering upon the glass 
becomes necessary. Mats, or light shutters of wood, are 
best. Old pieces of carpet will answer the purpose. For 
many years, I have used the leaves of our large palmetto 



82 TEUCK-FAKMING AT THE SOUTH. 

with satisfaction. One stirring of the soil between the 
rows, if attended with thorough weeding, will be cultiva- 
tion enough for seedlings. 

As soon as the plants are large enough to be safely 
handled, they should be thinned out to prevent crowd- 
ing, and, as all kinds of vegetable plants raised in cold 
frames at the South are benefited by being transplanted, 
they should be pricked out into other frames, and set 
from three to four and one-half inches or more apart 
each way, according to variety and space at disposal. If 
no such extra cold frames are available, and the plants 
must remain in the seed-bed, until the final transplant- 
ing into the open field, then the thinning should be with 
the view to afford them space to grow strong and stocky, 
and the surplus plants may be thrown away. Before 
the final removal, the plants, whether pricked out or 
not, should be watered, in case the soil is dry, in order 
that earth may adhere to the fibrous roots, to keep them 
fresh, and facilitate transplanting, I have indicated 
how plants may be protected from the effects of frost, 
and may add that it will hardly ever pay the truck- 
farmer, planting on any but a very small scale, to resort 
to any means of protection. He should have a suffi- 
ciency of plants, however, to replace any killed by cold. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



TRANSPLANTING. 



The follovv-ing remarks are intended to apply to vege- 
table plants and to those of the strawberry only. 

When a plant is removed from the soil in which the seed 
germinated, which provided it in its early growth with 
nourishment and moisture, the contact of the roots with 



TRAi^SPJ.ANTING. 83 

the particles of soil is not only interrupted, but some of 
the most important roots themselves are broken, and the 
plant is deprived of the absorbent points of the small 
rootlets. The evaporation from the leaves still con- 
tinues, though moisture can no longer be absorbed by the 
roots. The important operation of transplanting is prop- 
erly performed, when the equilibrium between these 
functions of the roots and the leaves is soonest reestab- 
tablished. If plants are transplanted to a wet, and par- 
ticularly heavy soil, the part pressed to the roots will 
bake and contract, leaving cracks and open spaces near 
the roots. The earth, into which plants are to be 
shifted, should be freshly dug, as this seems to encour- 
age an early emission of young rootlets; and it should 
be as fine as possible, so that every part of the roots may 
come in contact w4th soil and moisture. 

By the removal of leaves, evaporation is not destroyed, 
but only diminished; for it also takes place through 
young bark. In our hot climates, a portion of the 
leaves of all vegetables, in proportion to the injury sus- 
tained by the roots, should be removed at the time of 
transplanting To what extent this must be done, will 
be given for each kind hereafter. 

A moist state of the atmosphere prevents perspiration, 
or evaporation from the leaves, and such a condition is 
most favorable for transplanting. Still, with the excep- 
tion of some very delicate plants not able to survive a dry 
atmosphere, such as cucumbers, etc., it is not necessary 
to await a rain before doing the work. If the earth has 
been freshly stirred, and is moist enough to allow plant- 
ing holes to be made by the dibble, without caving in, 
and the soil is not very sandy, new roots will soon com- 
mence to grow, and the warm soil will push them rapidly 
forwards. 

The truck-farmer, planting upon an extensive scale, 
has often to depend not only upon mere unskilled, but 



84 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 

upon stupid labor, and were it not for the seemingly 
imperishable character of some vegetables, the percentage 
of loss would be much greater. The planting is either 
too shallow or too deep, and the soil is not uniformly 
pressed to the roots, which are put into the ground im- 
properly. 

In trans]3lanting such plants as the strawberry, the 
fibrous roots should be spread out as much as possible, 
while the root of a tap-rooted plant, as the cabbage, beet, 
etc., should be placed regularly up and down and not 
bent upon itself. If such a root is bent, the nutritive 
matter in descending from the leaves will be interrupted 
at the bend, and new rootlets will be slow to appear be- 
yond it. In transplanting the soil should be uniformly, 
but not harshly, pressed to the roots their entire length, 
from the extreme lower point upwards. 

With the exception of asparagus, horseradish, onions, 
and such plants as emit new roots along the lower por- 
tion of the stem, as tomatoes, cabbage, etc., it is a safe 
rule to put down the plant to the depth at which it orig- 
inally grew. 

In sandy soil it occasionally becomes necessary, in a 
drouth, during an entire transplanting season, to water 
the plants after they are set out. In this case the watered 
surface should be covered with dry soil to prevent baking. 

In a loose, fine, light soil, free from sticks, shells, peb- 
bles, etc., the hand alone may be used in transplanting 
on a small scale; but either the planting stick or dibble, 
or the trowel is preferable. The trowel is the safer 
implement in the hand of an unskilled workman. In 
using the dibble, it is thrust into the soil to make a hole 
to at least the full depth at which the plant is to be in- 
serted, the hole is then widened by a rotary motion of 
the implement. To insert the plant properly, it is held 
between the thumb and index finger of the left hand, 
and thus placed in the hole; the dibble is then plunged 



TRANSPLANTIKG. 



85 



into the ground two or three inches from the plant in a 
direction with its point toward and a little below the 
end of the root. The engraving, figure 3, shows the 
hole made by the dibble with the root of the plant with- 
in it. The dibble is thrust into the ground, ready to fix 
the root in place; by using the point, a, as a fulcrum, 
and moving the handle of the dibble from b to c, the soil 




Fig. 3.— PROPER USE OF THE DIBBLE, i 

will be pressed to the root for its entire length, from a 
to c. If this is done with sufficient force, it will fix a 
delicate plant so firmly in the soil, that if it be pulled by 
the top of a leaf, that will give way before the plant can 
be pulled up. If the dibble is inserted perpendicularly 
or parallel to the plant, instead of at an angle, or if it be 
partly withdrawn, before the movement from Z* to c is 
completed, the soil will only be pressed to the root at the 
top, leaving its more important part loosely suspended in 
an open excavation in the soil, as seen in fig. 4. Planting 
proceeds most conveniently from left to right. When 



86 



TRUCK-FAKMING AT THE SOUTH. 



the trowel is used, the operation is the same, except that 
the implement is inserted in front of the plant, instead 
of at the side. 

"When plants are taken up so carefully that few of the 
small roots are ruptured and with the soil adhering, or 
when they are turned out of flower-pots, they will start 




Fig. 4. — IMPROPER USE OF THE DIBBLE 



more readily; but they will not make so luxuriant a 
growth of leaves, nor will they develope as much fruit, as 
when a part of the roots has been broken. This is not 
in consequence of the rupture in itself, but because at 
and above the points of injury, numerous small fibrous 
roots are emitted, which are capable of providing the 
plant with an increased amount of nourishment. 



WATER Ai^D WATERING. 



87 



The following table by Werner shows the leaf surface 
of ruta-baga turnips both of plants grown directly from 
the seed, and of those subsequently transplanted. 



Ruta-baga Turnips di- 
rectly from seed 

" transplanted 



Average 
Numbe7' 
of Leaves. 



18 

18 



Average 
Surjnce of 
lach Leaf. 



Average 

Surface of 

all the Leaves. 



150 sq. centimet's. 
190 - " 



3,700 sq. centimet's 
3,420 '' " 



CHAPTER IX. 



WATER AND WATERING. 



Water is the medium by which the soluble matters of 
the soil are conveyed, through the roots, into the in- 
terior organism of plants. We know that the earth, 
only apparently dry, cannot support vegetation. The more 
advanced the state of growth, so long as the foliage re- 
mains young and succulent, the more moisture does a 
plant need. An important fact in the relation of vege- 
tation to moisture is seen in the effect the humidity of 
the atmosphere has upon its temperature. Without 
more or less vapor in the atmosphere, radiation would 
cool the surface of the earth so rapidly as to destroy the 
life of all tender plants. The hottest rays of the sun 
pass through the air, even when that is saturated with 
moisture, without heating it; but the heat radiated from 
the earth, and every object upon it, is intercepted and 
absorbed by the humidity in the air; and the atmospheric 
warmth is therefore in proportion to the heat of the sun's 
rays and the moisture of the air. Like the covering of a 
cold frame, the moist air admits the heat by day and 



88 TRUCK-FARMIiq^G AT THE SOUTH. 

prevents its departure at night. Hence the clearest, 
driest nights are the coldest. Hence the driest regions, 
like the desert of Sahara, have the coldest nights, and the 
cold of high elevations is due to the same cause. 

Prof. Tyndall says: ^' The removal, for a single sum- 
mer night, of the aqueous vapor from the atmosphere 
that covers England, would be attended by the destruc- 
tion of every plant which a freezing temperature would 
kill." Humidity and temperature are therefore inti- 
mately connected. 

Although the heat of the sun causes evaporation from 
plants, its amount is governed by the humidity of the 
air and the velocity of the wind. If the gardener could 
regulate the moisture of the atmosphere surrounding his 
crops, and make it most favorable for keeping up the 
proper evaporation, by applying water artificially and 
only in circumscribed limits, to their roots, he could be 
assured of success. While he may do so in his green- 
house, there are no means of regulating the heat and 
moisture of the open air. It is therefore that watering 
out-door crops, in our hot climate, is more often pro- 
ductive of harm than of benefit. 

When the earth is naturally moistened by rain, the 
whole air is saturated with moisture, preventing a too 
rapid perspiration from the leaves and the evaporation 
from the soil. If watering is done at all, it should be in 
cloudy weather; but it is most frequently injudiciously 
practised in dry, hot weather, and so circumscribed in ex- 
tent, that it can have little or no effect upon the atmos- 
phere. The roots are temporarily excited, and the dry, 
hot air robs the plant of the moisture through the leaves 
as rapidly as it can be pumped up by the roots. As soon 
as the temporary supply is exhausted, the plant not only 
returns to its former state of suffering, but is left more 
susceptible to injury than before. If the watering is 
repeated, the emission of rootlets near the surface is en- 



WATER AND WATERIi^G. 89 

couraged, and these grow, merely to perish again unless 
the water is continued. Another injury may occur 
through the decrease of temperature caused by rapid 
evaporation and perspiration. 

In our hot climate, during drouths, vegetation is 
greatly sustained by the moisture which is returned to 
the earth in the form of dews; and in order that these 
may be most beneficial, the soil should be deeply stirred 
and continue in a mellow condition upon the surface. 
When the soil is puddled and compacted around a plant 
by local watering, the amount of dew will be less from 
the decrease in the number of points of radiation pre- 
sented by the compact ball; besides the diminished quan- 
tity is evaporated from the impenetrable crust without 
being able to reach the roots. If watered, the earth 
should therefore be stirred subsequently, or the watered 
surface be covered with fresh, loose soil. 

If practised at all, the watering should, in hot weather, 
be applied to the roots and not to the foliage. Evening 
is the proper time of day, unless in the exceptional case 
of watering cold frames, when frost is apprehended. 
It is then advisable to water in the morning. The 
water should not be much colder than the surround- 
ing atmosphere. Where there are facilities for moistening 
the whole mass of soil by irrigation, that should not be 
neglected; for its great benefits are undoubted. But even 
then, unless the surface is so densely covered with the 
growing crop, as to protect it from being baked by the 
sun, it would be best to allow the moisture to reach the 
roots through percolation from ditches or drain pipes 
near enough to each other and kept full, than to cover 
the soil with water. A crop supplied with a sufficiency 
of soluble manure will suffer less during drouth than one 
inadequately fertilized, and the latter will require an 
abundance of water. 

The fertilizing effects of mulching the soil are men- 



90 TRUCK-FARMIKG AT THE SOUTH. 

tioned elsewhere. It remains here to be remarked that a 
mulch or covering to the soil will shade the ground from 
the hot sun and maintain an equal temperature. It pre- 
vents the too raj^id evaporation and drying ot the soil, 
and is therefore to be recommended with or without 
watering. 



CHAPTER X. 



PACKING AND MARKETS. 



It should be remembered by the grower and shipper 
of fruit and vegetables to Northern markets that, while 
his produce may be of the best quality, it will return 
him unsatisfactory prices, if put up in packages which 
present to the buyer an unattractive or unclean appear- 
ance. His first consideration, then, after securing a 
good crop, is to have his barrels, crates, etc., clean and 
bright, and well and symmetrically made, neatness being 
very important. The matter next in imjDortance is, that 
the packages be not only full at departure, but that they 
be also full on their arrival at their destination. They 
should not, therefore, be filled in a careless, haphazard 
manner, hastily headed up, and hurriedly dispatched. 
The contents should be so placed, or thoroughly shaken 
down, whenever the character of the article will permit, 
as to leave no vacant spaces to be filled out by the jar- 
ring received in transit, thus causing an empty space at 
the top, and permitting the stuff to be bruised by being 
shaken or rolled about withm the package. The con- 
tents of the barrel or crate should bulge up beyond the 
level, so that force will be required to press on the head 
or cover. A slight bruising of the upper layer is of but 



PACKIITG AND MAEKETS. 91 

little consequence. Special directions will be given for 
packing each variety of vegetable. No vegetable or 
fruit of inferior value (I am not alluding to size), with 
the slightest indication of decay or of over-ripeness, 
should be put up; for the packer should bear in mind 
that a speck, now only faintly perceptible to him, will 
some days later appear as an odious blemish in the eyes 
of the purchaser. The decay of a single individual may 
be communicated to and injure the rest. 

If vegetables or fruit of a second quality are worth 
less at home than if forwarded, let them be put up in 
separate packages, and not allowed to detract from the 
quality and market value of the first grade by mixing 
the two together. If articles of the first quality and the 
"culls" are shipped in separate packages, they bring 
better prices than when they are put up together. The 
decrease in value is out of all j)roportion to the slight 
increase in bulk. 

The pernicious habit of packing articles of a better 
quality at the top of a barrel or other package, and those 
of an inferior below ("deaconing" or "topping"), is 
neither more nor less than an attempt at fraud, to be 
shunned by every honest grower, while it is a reflection 
on the discernment or acuteness of the buyer. To the 
gardener who expects to continue shipping vegetables, 
who hopes for satisfactory returns, and wishes his brand 
or mark favorably known in the markets to which he 
sends his crops, I should recommend the other extreme. 

The laths of a crate should not be far enough apart to 
allow their edges to indent or cut such vegetables as to- 
matoes, cucumbers, etc., and yet be sufficiently distant 
to ventilate the jDackage as much as possible. The heads 
and sides of barrels should be cut to admit air freely. 
None but good, strong, clean, round-hooped potato or 
flour barrels should be used for shipping purposes. 



93 



TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 



BUSHEL AND BARREL CRATES. 

A bushel crate requires a centre-piece and two end- 
pieces; these are eight by fourteen inches. The laths 
two feet in length, and of a wddth suited to the kind of 
vegetable to be packed. For tomatoes, the laths should 
be fully two inches wide. For purposes of ventilation 
and convenient handling of the crate, the middle and 




Fig 5. — A BUSHEL CKATE. 

end-pieces are made octagonal by having the corners 
sawed off. The capacity of such a crate is two thousand 
two hundred and twenty-one cubic inches, while a legal 
bushel contains two thousand one hundred and fifty cubic 
inches. The width of the lath should be about one-half 
inch less than the dimension at the corner, in order to 
permit access of air when the crates are closely stowed on 
shipboard. The figure represents a bushel crate ready 



PACKIN^G AKD MARKETS. 



93 



for packing. If the first four laths with which the con- 
struction of a crate usually commences, a, h, c, and d, in 
figure 5, are a trifle thicker than the others, ventilation 
, will be more effectively secured in a pile of crates. 

If the contents are to be shaken down, two laths are 
placed loosely over the bulging vegetables, to prevent 
their jarring out; and grasping the ends of the crate at 
A and B, each end is lifted by the packer, and allowed 
to come down alternately with a sudden thump, and this 




Fig. 6.— A BARREL CRATE. 

process is continued until the contents have thoroughly 
settled. 

Each crate should be plainly and neatly marked by a 
stencil plate on both ends, with the name or initials both 
of the shipper and the consignee. When a mark has 
been adopted, it should be retained, so that it may be 
known by the buyers. Old brands on second-hand 
barrels should be thoroughly removed by the scraper, be- 
fore they are marked. 

The wood from which the crates are made should be 



94 



TRUCK-FAEMIJSIG AT THE SOUTH. 



inodorous. On account of its odor, cypress is objection- 
able. Sappy yellow pine makes the brightest, lightest 
laths, and splits less readily than heart-wood; but when, 
as is usually the case, it is cut from unseasoned lumber, 
the laths, if bundled, mould very readily and become 
black. Upon their arrival from the mill, the bundles 
should be opened, and the laths allowed to air thoroughly. 

The dimensions of the barrel crate (fig. 6) are, eleven 
inches wide, twenty inches deep, and three feet long. 

Figure 7 shows six strips, nailed upon thick plank, in 
order to hold the head and centre-pieces upright, and at 
the proper distance apart, facihtating the making of 




Fl^. 7.— BLOCK Fv!)« NAILING CKATES. 

crates. At c is a centre-piece in position. These are 
aligned by having all touch the board, a, h. The most 
convenient position for nailing crates is a seat on a 
low stool, in front of the above platform on the floor, 
though a standing position might suit a young person 
better. Of course the material, including nails, should 
be within easy reach. 

THE MARKETS. 

To market a crop profitably, or to know where and to 
whom to consign it, is as indispensable to the farmer, as 
to be able to produce it successfully. While an article 
may command a good price in one market, it, at the 
same time, may hardly pay the freight charges in an- 
other. Even distinct varieties of the same vegetable may 
suit one market better than another, and it is necessary 



PACKING AN"D MARKETS. 95 

to learn the peculiarities of each. Tomatoes are sold to 
better advantage in Baltimore and Boston than in any 
other Northern market. Cauliflowers and melons will not 
pay in Baltimore, while both sell well in Boston and New 
York, the former being a better market than New York 
for melons. The red sweet potato, although not the pop- 
ular variety, is more salable in Boston than in New 
York. White onions will sell higher than red ones in 
New York, while there is but slight difference between 
the two in Boston. I have rarely had reason to be pleased 
with sales in Philadelphia, and of late years have shipped 
very little to that market; nevertheless I am constrained 
to add that I have been told of several satisfactory sales 
there during the past season. My exj^erience has taught 
me that New York is, on the whole, the best market for 
the bulk of the crops. 

I have no personal knowledge of the Western markets 
and commission merchants; but I learn that the ship- 
ments have given satisfactory returns. It is probable 
that, with improved transportation facilities, considerable 
shipments wdll be made to the Western cities hereafter. 
In every market there are doubtless many excellent, hon- 
est, and trustworthy firms, the standing of which, as that 
of all others, is ascertainable at mercantile agencies. Old 
and experienced truck-farmers have their tried and ap- 
proved consignees, and it is important for the beginner 
to exercise great care in the selection of his commission * 
house, and, when one has been fixed upon, it is not well 
to make a change for a trivial reason. 



96 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 

CHAPTER XI. 

INSECTS AND THEIR REMEDIES. 

The working farmer is so occupied in the pursuit of his 
profession, and by the study of the phenomena by which 
he is surrounded, upon a correct appreciation of which 
his success will largely depend, that he rarely has sufficient 
time to devote to botany or entomology as a science. 
The laws of vegetable growth, an intimate knowledge of 
useful and noxious plants, and, above all, a clear percep- 
tion of, and discrimination between his friends and foes 
in the insect world, are among his urgent needs. Next 
to the contingencies of season, his prosperity will depend 
upon the extent of insect depredations. Millions of dol- 
lars' worth of property are annually destroyed by in- 
sects, and a knowledge of their habits is required, that 
we may learn how to deal with them, in order to stay 
their ravages. If farmers more correctly ajDi^reciated the 
aggregate losses by insects, they would probably take a 
deeper interest in studying them. — (See Exodus x: 5, 
14-15.) 

In A. D. 591, a vast horde of locusts ravaged Italy. 
From the stench of their decaying carcasses arose a pesti- 
lence which carried off nearly a million men and beasts. 
In the Venetian Territory, in 1478, the same insect 
created a famine, during which thirty thousand persons 
died of starvation. So well did the Arabians know their 
power, that they make a locust say to Mahomet: ''We 
are the army of the great God; we produce ninety -nine 
eggs; if the hundred were completed, we should consume 
the whole earth and all that is in it." Professor Riley 
estimated the annual loss from insect depredations in 
Missouri at fifteen to twenty millions of dollars, and the 



INSECTS AND THEIR EEMEDIES. 97 

losses in the United States probably amount to such an 
enormous sum, that nearly fifty million dollars might be 
saved through a more generally extended knowledge of 
the habits of insects. If insects play such a part in our 
economy, and, if the farmer's property is more liable to 
injury than that of any other class, who more than him- 
self should be interested in them, and the remedies 
to abate the evil? There is no part of animated nature 
more vital to our av elf are than insects, of which there 
are about fifty thousand species inhabiting the United 
States. 

The study of entomology has been frequently looked 
down upon by the ignorant with ridicule, in consequence 
of the minuteness of many of its objects; yet it is exactly 
in these small members of creation that are exhibited the 
most wonderful adaptations of means to purposes, and 
the most amazing wisdom of the Creator! 

Can the tiger, Avith its fierce leaj), by which he catches 
his prey, and the retractile claw, by which he secures it, 
or the giraffe, with his long neck and tongue, by which he 
reaches the leaves, many feet from the ground, be com- 
pared with the spider? This insect lurks behind a screen 
of its own manufacture, ready to pounce upon and tie up 
any helpless insect, which conveys to it by the vibration 
of the web, the intelligence of its entanglement. In 
this web each single thread consists of many thousands 
of finer strands, a part only of which in the net of geomet- 
ric spiders, the circles, is provided with a viscid covering 
to hold the caj^tive. Which seems the greater manifesta- 
tion of divine wisdom: the clumsy she bear that brings 
food to her hungry cubs, directly a^Dpealing to her ma- 
ternal care, or the sand-wasp, which, after depositing an 
egg in a cell at the bottom of a cylindrical cavity in the 
sand, supplies the future larva with food in the form of 
insects ? She so regulates the number of these, that the 
larva may have sufficient food; she stings the insects, 
5 



98 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 

without killing them, as they would then putrefy, but 
just enough to keep them in a dormant state until 
wanted. How wonderful the instinct of a mother to 
provide food for offspring she will never behold ! Every 
individual of the species, the descendant of countless 
ancestors, has thus fulfilled this maternal duty for 
ages past. Had the sand-wasp, for a single season, 
neglected its instinctive work, there would be no " horse- 
guards " to keep the cow-fly under control, and in a 
measure to protect our cattle on the sea coast from 
their annoyance. The most efficient aids to man in keep- 
ing the increase of injurious insects within due limits, 
are their natural enemies of the insect world, and some 
of the insectivorous birds; for other birds devour indis- 
criminately, both the useful and injurious insects. There 
are also certain families of insects, which depredate upon 
the farmer's crops, and diminish his income, and certain 
other kinds, which prey upon these, and are therefore 
our friends and auxiliaries. Horticulture, it has been 
truly said, is a war with insects, and we must antagonize 
the former, and wage a relentless war against them, while 
we patronize, protect, and foster the useful insects to the 
best of our ability. 

If the farmer remains ignorant of these mutual rela- 
tions between insects, a knowledge of the more common 
instances being readily acquired, how is he to discrimi- 
nate between friend and foe, so that he may not be guilty 
of the evident impropriety of destroying both? How 
often has the useful little friendly lady-bug been mis- 
taken for the parent of the plant-lice, and been pitiless- 
ly destroyed? 

If he that makes two blades of grass to grow, where 
only one grew before, is a benefactor to mankind, he 
that protects both from needless destruction, is not 
less a benefactor ! Therefore, while it is not within the 
power of man to wipe injurious insects from the face of 



IN^SECTS AND THEIR REMEDIES. 99 

the earth, he may limit the destruction of property they 
cause, and it is to the farmer's interest, and is his duty, 
to wage a united war against them, knowing no to- 
morrow in its prosecution, but killing and destroying 
wherever and whenever possible, and employing every 
means in his power. Individual effort can avail little, 
and concerted action is necessary. 

In our climate, insects generally have two broods in a 
season. Most of those which survive the winter in their 
perfect state are fertilized females, and all insects, if left 
unmolested early in the season, will propagate their spe- 
cies, and the second brood will outnumber the first a 
hundred or a thousand-fold. 

While recommending a determined crusade against all 
insect pests, I would, from the same motive, protest 
against the pernicious habit, so common all over the 
country, of indiscriminately taking the life of the lower 
animals inhabiting the fields and woods; for the reason, 
that many reptiles, the toads and moles, are our innocent 
friends and aids. There are but very few venomous 
snakes, and the larger kinds, which are not insectivorous, 
destroy numbers of field rats and mice. 

PARASITIC INSECTS. 

We are occasionally subject to the visitation of an in- 
sect in vast numbers; but these generally bring with 
them the cause of their own limitation, or there would 
be no equilibrium in nature. Swarms of parasitic insects, 
finding an increased food supply, follow in their wake, 
and the farmer, aroused from his apathy, by finding his 
entire crops, and not merely a portion thereof, endan- 
gered, resorts to all sorts of devices to save them. He 
dusts and sprinkles poisons, he digs circumscribing 
ditches with upright sides and pitfalls, and applies the 
torch and burning petroleum. 

Previous to 1862, the European cabbage butterfly 



100 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 

(Pieris rapes), the parent of the cabbage-worm, was un- 
known in this country. It was at that time introduced 
into Canada. Finding in the cabbage fields near Quebec 
an abundance of food, and meeting no checks, it im- 
proved its opportunities and propagated its species to 
such an extent, as to cut short the cabbage croj) of 
the \icinity in one season to the extent of forty thousand 
dollars. 

Suddenly its own especial enemy, the little Chalcid 
fly (Pferomahis puparum) made its appearance, presum- 
ably direct from Europe; and in turn, finding its ap- 
propriate food in abundance, propagated its species so 
rapidly, that, now in sections where the cabbage-worm 
was most plentiful, neither the one nor the other is often 
seen; thus showing the beautiful working of checks and 
counter-checks in the general plan of nature. 

THE MIGRATION OF INSECTS. 

The number of injurious insects is on the increase all 
over the world. The interchange between different 
sections, different countries, and even different hemis- 
pheres, of noxious insects, indigenous to each, is con- 
stantly occurring, as shown by the case of the just-named 
Pieris rapce. The Colorado potato-beetle once gained 
a foothold in Germany; but through the paternal care of 
the government, the large potato field, where he was ob- 
served, was covered with inflammable material, and that 
country was promptly made too hot for him. 

The Colorado potato-beetle has marched eastward to 
the coast, a curse and ravager of every farmer on its 
route, while the harlequin-bug {Strachia Mstrionica), 
coming north from its home in Mexico, will cross the 
line of the other, unless it reaches a climatic limit to its 
onward progress. An abundance of food has recruited 
the ranks of noxious insects, and is still exerting the 
same influence. Before the introduction of the cab- 



INSECTS Ai^D THEIR REMEDIES. 101 

bage into Mexico, the insect just named was probably 
much more restricted in numbers, and changed its habit 
from some plant of the mustard family or other, to the 
more acceptable and delicate food of the cultivated cab- 
bage. This insect was found a few years ago feeding on 
Ossabaw beach on a plant, I think, of the family 
Salsoleae. 

In the fall of 1880, I found the larvae of the little 
Botys repetitalis on cauliflower, and a few days afterwards 
my daughter found it, probably on its native food plant 
very abundantly, — the common rag-weed {Ambrosia 
artemesicefolia.) Of this and other instances of change 
of habit coming under my own observation. Prof. Riley 
says in one of his reports: 

'^ Under the head of new cabbage insects should be 
included this insect, which was first described as Botys 
repetitalis by Mr. Grote, on page 270 of the last Annual 
Eeport of the Department of Agriculture. Larvae of 
this insect were originally received from Dr. A. Oemler, 
of Wilmington Island, at the mouth of the Savannah 
Eiver, etc." 

In a contribution to the "American Naturalist," under 
the title of " Change of Habit; Two New Enemies of the 
Egg Plant," Prof. Riley says: "In our writings on the 
Colorado potato-beetle, we have repeatedly drawn atten- 
tion to the fact that Dory^oliora juncta, although a native 
of the Atlantic States, and living in the midst of our cul- 
tivated species of Solarium, has yet never shown any indi- 
cation to leave its natural food plant, the wild horse-nettle 
{Solaniwi Carolinense) for the cultivated species of the 
genus. We have now for the first time to record its appear- 
ance as an enemy to horticulture. Dr. Oemler having found 
it — ^larvae as well as beetles — feeding on his egg-plants in 
the earlier part of June. There can be no doubt alDout 
the correctness of Dr. Oemler's observations, as the speci- 
mens were sent to us for determination. This is another 



102 TRUCK-FARMIifG AT THE SOUTH. 

of those instances of remarkable and sudden change in 
the food-habit of a tolerably common and otherwise well- 
known species, which led ns to the remarks on p. 152 of 
this volume anent * New Insects Injurious to Agricul- 
ture.' As in other cases of this sort, the causes of such 
changes are not readily ascertained. In this particular 
case, the new habit may be only temporarily developed in 
a restricted region, either by the disappearance or the poor 
condition of Solanum Carolinense; or it may become per- 
manent, and cause D. jitnda, hitherto looked ujDon as 
harmless or even beneficial, to vie with its ten-lined rel- 
ative in destructiveness. Time alone will indicate, as we 
have no grounds upon which to base any confident pre- 
diction." I may mention that the horse-nettle was 
neither absent, nor in poor condition, and, that after 
writing to Prof. Eiley, I found the perfect insect on both 
egg-plant and the former. 

The same author writes: ^ ^Another case very similar to 
that just mentioned, may here be recorded. There is a 
small tortoise-beetle {Cassida Texand) easily distinguished 
from its congeners by the uniformly pale-green color of 
its upper surface, and the coarse striae of punctations on 
the elytra. In 1879, we found it in all stages abundant- 
ly in Southern Texas, feeding on the leaves of Solanum 
elceagnifoUum. Dr. Oemlernow writes (June 13th) that 
he finds eggs, larvae and imagos of this beetle quite com- 
monly depredating on his egg-plants, though there is no 
previous record of any such habit, and, indeed, the spe- 
cies is not recorded from the Atlantic States, albeit we 
have found it this very season at Washington on Solanum 
Carolinense.'''' Probably neither of these insects may 
ever become very destructive pests; bwt finding in our 
cultivated crops more abundant and succulent food than 
its former, wild-growing and tougher food plant afforded, 
the probabilities are that both will increase, and the pres- 
ent is the proper time for their destruction. 



Iiq"SECTS AKD THEIR REMEDIES. 103 

In whatever state an insect species is accustomed to 
exist through the winter, or to hibernate (and it is done 
in the case of a few in more than one condition), no de- 
gree of cold likely to occur will affect them; therefore the 
popular idea that a hard winter is destructive to insects 
is a fallacy; except that such as are turned up by the plow 
in very cold sunless weather may, in their benumbed 
state, become an easier prey to insectivorous birds. 
There is more truth in the reverse statement, that a mild 
winter is destructive to insects. 

The influence of a certain degree of heat for a sufficient 
time will hatch the worm as well as the chick, or bring 
forth the butterfly from its chrysalis. If a worm is bom 
after a mild spell in winter, and finds no food in readi- 
ness, it naturally must perish from starvation, and if a 
butterfly appears, it must suffer from the same cause. 
Either may perish from cold it was not expected to en- 
counter. Even in case of survival, there would be no 
breeding during the uncongenial weather. 

THE RAPID REPRODUCTION OF INSECTS. 

The Creator in his wisdom has ordained that the 
smaller animals and insects, which are most subject to 
predatory enemies, shall be endowed with the greater 
fecundity. The queen of the white-ant lays sixty eggs 
in a minute, eighty thousand in twenty-four hours, and 
forty million during its existence of two years in the 
perfect state. Ants, birds, reptiles, beasts, ever near, 
make food of them, when they come forth in countless 
numbers at the commencement of the tropical rainy sea- 
son; so that of many millions scarcely a single pair es- 
capes to lay the foundation of a new colony. A single 
plant-louse may, in five generations, become the ancestor 
of seven hundred and twenty-nine million individuals; 
and there may be twenty generations in a season. Dr. 
Fitch ascertained, by actual experiment, that the fecun- 



104 TRUCK-FARMII^^G AT THE SOUTH. 

dity of the grain-aphis was still greater. The wingless 
females become mothers at three days old, and bear four 
little ones every day, every one of which is a fertile fe- 
male from birth; so that in twenty days the descendants 
would exceed two millions. Only the next to the last 
brood of the season consists of both male and female, 
when the eggs are fertilized for every generation of the 
ensuing season but the last, all the other broods being 
born alive. No insect is more subject to being preyed 
upon. In all nature a contest is going on for existence, 
the weaker always succumbing. This is the struggle for 
the ^^ survival of the fittest," as Darwin terms it. 

If we sow our seeds too thick, we see some of the plants 
overtopping and smothering the rest; we see in a growth 
of young piue saplings that some of the trees are dying 
out, in order that the more vigorous may have more room. 
In this wise ordinance of the Creator, that only the 
stronger individuals shall propagate their own sjDCcies, 
He has established a safeguard against deterioration; and 
it seems that He has not only endowed the stronger with 
greater powers to resist deleterious influences, but has 
implanted in such lower orders of beings, which are fre- 
quently the cause of disease and death, an inclination, a 
selection, to infest victims least able to resist their in- 
roads. The sleek, well-fed horse will not be subject to 
itch; the well cultivated and vigorously growing orchard 
is not apt to be attacked by bark-lice. 

The above is, at least, the only reasonable explanation 
I am able to offer of the fact, often observed by cabbage 
growers, that plants in luxuriant growth are rarely at- 
tacked by leaf -lice, whereas a field that is backward in 
growth, and feeble in health, will be overrun by them. 
This is such a general observation, that Gregory says: 
" Considering the circumstances under which the insect 
appears, I hold that it is rather the product than the 
cause of disease." 



IKSECTS AI^D THEIR REMEDIES. 105 

THE CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 

This is not a book on entomology^ and I shall avoid, 
as much as possible, the description of insects and the 
use of technical terms, preferring to present the most im- 
portant species to the eye in the form of an illustration. 

For the better understanding of future references, I 
must, however, enumerate the orders into which insects 
are divided, and the transformations they undergo. 

ORDERS. 

I. — Hymenoptera. — Example, bees, ants, wasps, ich- 
neumons. 

II. — Coleoptera. — Shield- winged insects. The beetles. 
Example, the fig-eater; Colorado potato-beetle. 

III. — Lepidoptera. — Butterflies and moths. Example, 
the cotton-worm and tomato-worm moths. 

ly. — Hemiptera. — Ihe bugs. Example, the plant- 
louse. 

V. — Diptera. — Two- winged insects. Example, com- 
mon house fly. 

VI. — Ortlioptera. — Straight-winged insects. Example, 
the grass-hopper. 

VII. — Neiiroptera. — Nerve-winged insects. Example, 
the dragon-fly, or mosquito-hawk. 

There are also minor divisions, but the orders will an- 
swer our purpose. 

The tour stages of insect life are: 

First. — The Qg^, which hatches and produces: 

Second. — The larva (worm, grub, maggot, caterpillar), 
which goes into the state of the: 

Third. — Pupa or chrysalis, often enclosed in a silken 
cocoon. Out of the pupa appears the: 

Fourth. — Imago, or perfect insect. 

These changes of form are truly wonderful. 



106 TRUCK-FA RMI]!^G AT THE SOUTH. 

The cabbage insect, for instance, from being a worm, 
crawling slowly about u^^on sixteen short feet, and greed- 
ily devouring, with two strong jaws, about twice its own 
weight of cabbage leaf daily, and seeing out of twelve mi- 
nute, nearly invisible eyes, transforms itself, first into a 
motionless, sightless chrysalis, and then into a flitting 
butterfly, with six long, wholly dissimilar legs, ten hav- 
ing completely disapj^eared. Instead of the twelve in- 
visible eyes, it is now provided with two prominent ones, 
each composed of about seventeen thousand convex 
lenses, every one supposed to be a separate eye. Instead 
of the two strong jaws, we see a long, flexible proboscis 
for the extraction of the nectar of flowers, now its only 
food. The shape of its head is comjDletely changed, and 
from it project two horns, which are the organs of touch. 

The insects that infest particular vegetables will be 
mentioned further on, in treating of their special food 
plants. 

Of omnivorous insects, or general feeders, those which 
first claim our attention, on account of their general de- 
structiveness, are: 

THE CUT-WORMS. 

These are the larvae of several genera of night-flying 
owlet or rustic moths {Noctuido) , the genus Agrotis 
furnishing the most numerous species, while those of 
Ma7nestra, Hadena, and CelcBua are more rare. 

Prof. C. V. Eiley has made a special study of cut- 
worms, and has described, in his First Missouri Eeport, 
the habits of twelve distinct species, and subsequently 
of several others. 

Ordinarily, the moth attaches her eggs in early spring 
and late summer to vegetation near the ground; but 
sometimes the eggs are laid on the leaves of trees, upon 
which the worms do not feed, but from which they de- 
scend as soon as born. Soon after it is hatched, the young 



IITSECTS AKD THEIR REMEDIES. 



107 



worm descends below the surface of the soil, but comes 
up nightly for food, cutting tender plants. Retiring 
about sunrise, it sometimes draws a part of a leaf into its 
burrow. Some distinct species ascend trees to cut the 
buds, and are the climbing cut-worms. They are all most- 
ly dark-colored, greasy, smooth-looking worms, mottled 
with white, bearing a general resemblance to one another, 
and when full grown are about an inch and a half in 
length. They curl up, when disturbed, and are torpid 
in the cold of winter; but in our climate, with every 
warm spell, they become lively, and hungry enough to 
continue their depredations periodically throughout the 





Fig. 8.— GREA.ST CUT-WORM (Agtonis telifera, Harr.). Fig. 9.— larva. 

winter. They hibernate at the South in both the larva 
and the pupa state. When full grown, the worm goes 
deeper into the ground, and forms an oval chamber in 
the soil, in which it goes into the pupa state. In the 
warm weather of spring, the moth comes forth in from 
two to three weeks afterwards. It is generally of a gray 
or brown color, with slight differences of darker markings 
and colorings, on the front wings, and has a spread of 
wings of about an inch and a half. When at rest, it sits 
with the wings folded against the body, the lower being 
covered and out of sight. 

In order to familiarize the eye with the appearance of 
the parent moths, as well as that of the worms, engrav- 
ings of several of the species are given. 

The Greasy cut-worm (fig. 8; larva, fig. 9), is very 



108 



TRUCK-FARMIKG AT THE SOUTH. 



widely distributed, it being found in nearly all parts of 
the United States, and attacks many very different 
plants, sometimes destroying whole fields of corn and of 
tobacco. The parent moth (fig. 8), is known as the 
Lance Rustic (Agrotis telifera, Harr.), which often enters 




Fig. 10.— MOTH OF WESTERN STRIPED cut-wo:rm {AgioUs suhgothico). 

the house at night. The general color of the fore-wings 
is dark-brown, and the hind-wings are pearly- white. 

The most common species in Georgia is called the 
Western Striped cut-worm in the books, though it is 
quite as common at the East and South as elsewhere. It 
is dirty-white or ash-gray in color, sometimes yellowish, 
and has dark stripes on the sides. The moth, known as 
the Gothic Dart {Agrotis suhgothica, Harr.), is given in 
tig. 10, with the wings both open and closed. The darker 




Fig. 11.— DARK-SIDED CUT-WORM (AgroUs Cochranii). 

parts of the wings are deep-brown, and the lighter por- 
tions are of grayish flesh-color. 

The Dark-sided cut-worm, of which larva and moth 
are given in fig. 11, is Agrotis Cochranii, Riley. It is 



IKSECTS AND THEIR REMEDIES. 



109 



one of the climbing species, and very destructive to the 
buds of fruit trees. 

The W-marked cut-worm (fig. 12), is the larva of the 
Clandestine owlet-moth {Noctua clandestina, Harr.). It 
attacks various vegetables, and also climbs. 

The Glassy cut- worm, the larva of Agrotis (or Ha- 







Fig. 12.— W-MARKED CUT-WORM 

(Nociua cla7iclesti7m, Harr.). 



Fig. 13.— GLASSY CUT- WORM 

{Agrotis devastata). 



dena) devastata (fig. 13), is glassy -green, with a bright 

red head, with a hard, dark-brown shield just back of it. 

The small White, Bristly cut-worm (fig. 14), Celcena 





Fig. 14, — SMALL WHITE BRISTLY CUT-WORM {Cdcma renigero). 

(or Hadeiia) renigera, is very small, and a general feeder, 
often destructive in the flower garden. 

Entomologists, in their revision of these insects, have 
made some changes in the scientific names. Those here 
given will direct the reader to the detailed descriptions 
in the entomological reports and other works. 

As the moths of the various cut- worms fly at night, and 
are attracted by light, it has been recommended to make 
open fires in the fields; and even several fire-traps havo 
been invented, into which night-flying moths have been 
enticed and killed. These fires are of very questionable 
utility, since it may happen that more beneficial than 
noxious insects may be destroyed. 



110 TEUCK-FARMIKG AT THE SOUTH. 

REMEDIES FOR CUT-WORMS. 

Many remedies have been recommended to kill or drive 
away cut-worms, such as ashes, salt, lime, gas-lime, cop- 
peras, sulphur, etc.; but I know of none, harmless to 
plants, worth the trouble of application. Some have 
been deceived by the disappearance of the worm at the 
time it is about to undergo its changes, ascribing it to the 
effect of a remedy. Dilute washes of soap, tobacco, etc., 
do not seem to be repulsive to cut-worms. Pyrethrum, 
the mere touch of which is so deadly to some insects, 
seems in the open air perfectly innocuous to these, and 
they soon recover, even after being covered with it for 
half an hour or more in close confinement. 

Covering the stems of plants above and below the sur- 
face of the ground by a funnel-shaped fold of paper or 
tin, or surrounding a cucumber or melon hill similarly with 
a hoop of wood or iron, may be a protection, but is a pro- 
cess too troublesome and expensive for the truck-farmer. 

Eound holes made in loamy or heavy soil by the inser- 
tion of a stick are said to entrap these worms, which may 
be killed the next morning by re-inserting the stick. This 
is one of the few remedies, the utility of which I cannot 
deny from actual experience, never having cultivated 
land heavy enough to prevent the worm from promptly 
burrowing himself out of the trap. On a large field the 
small holes, to entrap them, would necessarily be very 
numerous, and the labor of re-inserting the stick into 
each, whether empty or full, would condemn the remedy. 

The instinct of the parent moth will lead it to place 
its eggs only where the future worm will find its proper 
food; and if a field upon which the gardener expects to 
put out valuable plants in the spring is kept bare of veg- 
etation during the months in which the eggs are laid, 
it will be free from cut-worms. If plowed up later, and 
then kept bare during the winter, the worms will migrate 



IKSECTS AKD THEIR REMEDIES. Ill 

to better pastures, which may even be provided for them 
with advantage. But a bare fallow is destructive to 
fertility in our climate, and a thick mulch should be pro- 
vided, which when burnt off will destroy crickets, etc. , har- 
boring under it. I can vouch both for this plan as a mea- 
sure against cut-worms, as well as a means of fertility; 
but it is rarely jjracticable. If in the rotation a clean 
fall crop, not subject to cut-worms, can precede the one 
to be pnt out, the latter will not be apt to suffer from 
them. A cut-worm generally indicates its presence, 
by a destroyed or injured plant, a cut leaf, or freshly 
stirred soil, and, on a small scale at early morn, it may be 
hunted at the root of the plant and killed; but never until 
some damage has already been done. When the soil is 
damp, the worm is generally to be found at early morn- 
ing near the surface. In dry sandy soil, and as the day 
advances, it burrows deeper. 

My method of dealing with cut-worms, of late years, 
has b^n to remove them from the field, before the crop 
to be jeopardized is up, or the plants are put out. 

By placing cabbage leaves and bunches of grass along 
the rows of watermelon hills four years* ago, I caught, 
by hunting them daily, fifteen hundred and thirty-eight 
worms on about one-fourth of an acre, before the seed 
came up, and lost but a single melon plant. 

On one occasion, I captured, one morning, fifty-eight 
of all sizes under a single turnip leaf, and my son found 
fifteen at the root of a single small cabbage plant. But, 
even when the worms were as abundant as this would indi- 
cate, I found the process unsatisfactory and time-consum- 
ing, and resorted to my present effective plan of poisoning 
them. 

After the land is prepared for cabbages, or any other 
crop needing protection, I place cabbage or turnip leaves 
in rows fifteen or twenty feet apart all over the field, and 
about the same distance apart in the rows. The leaves 



112 TRUCK-rARMIJ^G AT THE SOUTH. 

are first dipped in a well-stirred mixture of a tablespoon- 
ful of Pans green to the bucket of water; or they may 
be first moistened, then dusted with a mixture of one 
part of Paris green to twenty of flour, and placed care- 
fully with the dusted surface next to the ground. Two 
such applications, particularly in cloudy weather, at in- 
tervals of three or four days, will suffice to allow the cut- 
worms to make away with themselves, which they gen- 
erally do with perfect success. This j^lan, first recom- 
mended by Prof. Riley, is the best that I have found. 
Whoever adopts it, will rid himself of the pest at least 
cost and trouble, and will not be compelled to replant 
constantly, or to sow his seed so thickly as to provide: 

" One for the black-bird, one for 'he crow, 
Two for the cut-worm and three to grow." 

NATURAL EKEMIES OF CUT-WORMS. 

In the front rank of all insectivorous birds as a destroyer 
of cut-worms stands prominently the much slandered 
crow. He is u]p early enough to catch the worm, before 
it descends; but, if need be, he digs it up. The good the 
crow accomplishes in kilHng cut- worms, tomato-worms, 
and field mice, far outweighs the value of the few grains 
of corn he may pilfer, and he should therefore be pro- 
tected instead of being persecuted. 

Domestic poultry are also useful aids in destroying 
cut-worms. The common mole, it is true, does consid- 
erable damage by burrowing between the roots of grow- 
ing crops; but he is wrongfully accused of feeding upon 
grain, and roots of crops, for he is exclusively insectiv- 
orous, and he probably devours numbers of cut-worms. 
Fortunately for the mole, and for the farmer, too, at- 
tempts to poison it with corn soaked in strychnine are 
based upon the fallacious belief that he feeds upon the 
grain. 

Notwithstanding the subterranean and nocturnal habit 



INSECTS AND THEIR REMEDIES. 113 

of cut-worms they have several insect enemies, which 
attack them both above and below the surface. There 
are four-winged flies, belonging to the genus Microgaster 
which deposit their eggs in the body of the worms; and 
a large yellowish brown, four-winged Ichneumon fly, 
Paniscus geminaiiis, does the same. Among the insects 
that devour cut-worms for food, is the useful spined 
soldier-bug, and the larva and complete insect of the 
fiery ground-beetle, Calosoma calidum. 

GRASSHOPPERS. 

The insects commonly called grasshoppers, belong to 
two families of Orthoptera. The first and comparatively 
harmless [LocustidcB) are mostly nocturnal insects, gen- 
erally green in color, with their legs four-jointed. They 
have long, tapering feelers, and are jorovided with a long 
projecting instrument at the end of the body for deposit- 
ing their eggs {ovijjositor). 

The other family (AcrididcB), embraces the more de- 
structive ^^lateful grasshopper," or Rocky Mountain 
locust. The locusts of the Bible {Locusta migi^atoria), 
and the numerous varieties, which are so destructive to 
our turnips and cabbage seedlings in September and 
October (commonly called locusts in this country), be- 
long to the family Cicada, and are harmless to the crops 
of the truck-farmer. These are more varied in color than 
the foregoing, have shorter feelers, three-jointed legs, 
and no long egg-laying instrument. The female insect 
lays a large number of eggs in the soil, late in the fall, 
which hatch out in the spring. The larvae are wingless, 
but otherwise bear a great resemblance to the imago and 
perfect their growth during the summer. To plants in 
seed-leaf they are very destructive; but those more ad- 
vanced may outgrow their inroads. To plants so young, 
as only to have one or two seed-leaves, or still in the seed- 
bed, there can be no reasonable objections to the applica- 



114 TEUCK-FARMIN^G AT THE SOUTH. 

tion of poison for their protection, as all the first leaves 
will be cast off long before maturity, and the small 
amount that might lodge on the stem would be removed 
by rain. 

Harris says that grasshoppers are attacked by certain 
thread-like, brown, or blackish worms (Filaria), and are 
infested by little red mites {Ocyjoete), of which ten or a 
dozen may be found adhering to the body beneath the 
wings. 

Probably moles and ground beetles, and their larvae 
may destroy the eggs, while the crow and a few other 
birds, and domestic poultry, feed upon the insect. 

Grasshoppers might be captured, as in France and 
elsewhere, by means of cloth traps, drawn across the 
fields, but such methods, without concert of action 
among farmers, are useless, and the use of kerosene on 
sheet-iron pans drawn over the field as recommended in 
the First Eeport of the United States Entomological 
Commission is, by all odds, the most satisfactory. 

Grasshoppers are not apt to fly from harboring grass, 
or weeds, and I avail myself of this habit, and locate my 
cabbage-seed beds in the middle of an open field, gen- 
erally undergoing preparation at the time for oats. If 
the grain is up simultaneously with the cabbages, the 
young blades, while affording food, will not be sufiiciently 
thick to furnish a harbor around the beds. 

CRICKETS {A chetidw. ) 

Unlike the tree-cricket {(Ecanthus niveus) which in- 
jures fruit trees, the several kinds of crickets depredat- 
ing upon the crops of the truck-farmer live upon the 
ground, harboring under low herbage and grass. They 
pass the winter at the South in the Qgg and in the per- 
fect state; the female laying numerous eggs in the ground 
at the approach of winter, which hatch out in the spring. 
They abound particularly near the sea coast, where, at 



IKSECTS AND THEIR REMEDIES 115 

times, they become yery destructive. Exclusive of cut- 
worms, no insect here was more destructive to young 
cabbage plants in the fall of 1881. In March and April 
they gnaw into the '^ curds " of cauliflower, making un- 
sightly blemishes. 

They emit their shrill sound by rubbing their wing 
covers against each other. This insect, on very young 
plants, may be poisoned by an application of Paris green, 
but when it becomes dangerous to use the poison in this 
manner, it may be mixed with grated carrot. 

Crickets have the habit of hiding under objects on the 
ground, and may be found under boards, palmetto leaves, 
etc., placed along the rows of cabbages and other crops, 
for the purpose of attracting them, but it requires quick- 
ness to kill them, with a flat bat, as they become very 
lively as soon as light is admitted to their retreat. 

THE MOLE-CRICKET {Gryllotalpa.) 

Owing to its exclusively nocturnal habit, this insect is 
rarely seen, although it is sometimes destructive to seed- 
ling plants, eating off the seed leaves, for instance, of 
melons and cucumbers. There are two species in this 
country. Gryllotalpa lorealis is found in moist ground 
in the New England and other Northern States, but is 
much less common tlian G. I)revi2:)ennis in the Middle 
and Southern States. A still different siDccies, G. vul- 
garis, is found in Europe, where it is more abundant 
than either of ours are with us. It is often quite trou- 
blesome. I have seen it successfully captured by sinking 
empty tumblers, flower-pots (closed at the bottom), etc., 
level with the surface of the soil. It may also be pois- 
oned in the same manner as the cricket. 

BIRDS AS IKSECT DESTROYERS. 

As related to the question of the utility of insectivor- 
ous birds and their food supply, I cite the examinations 



116 TRUCK-FARMIKG AT THE SOUTH. 

made by Prof. S. A. Forbes, of Illinois, of the stomachs of 
eighty-six blue birds {Sialia sialis), and his observations 
and conclusions.* Ten of the birds were shot in Feb- 
ruary, twenty-one in March, thirteen in April, nine in 
May, ten in June, nine in July, two in September, and 
twelve in December, in Southern Illinois. The stomach 
of a bird shot February 24th, contained thirty per cent, of 
cut- worms; forty per cent, of crickets; five per cent, of 
ichneumonidss; twenty-five per cent, of the larvae of the 
two-lined soldier-beetle. After enumerating the contents 
of the stomachs of all the birds. Prof. Forbes summarizes: 
'' What now shall we say of the economic relations of 
this bird? According to the estimate of Mr. "Walsh that 
(reasoning from the comparative numbers of injurious 
and beneficial insects, a bird must be shown to eat at 
least thirty times as many injurious individuals as bene- 
ficial ones, before it can be considered useful), the blue 
bird does at least twenty times as much harm as good, — 
that is to say, the beneficial insects destroyed would 
themselves have made away with twenty times as many 
injurious insects as the birds themselves have eaten. 
Admitting that Mr. Walsh's estimate was exaggerated, it 
surely was not twenty times too large, and even if it 
were, we could merely look upon the blue bird as harm- 
less, indeed, but as useless also. And yet, in the face of 
this, I venture to doubt that a case has yet been made out. 
" In the first place, nothing has been learned of the food 
of the young, and there is some reason for supposing 
that birds select for their young, the softer kinds of in- 
sects. This supposition, founded chiefly upon the state- 
ments of M. Florent-Prevost, of Paris, is contradicted, 
it is true, by observations of the food of the young mock- 
ing-bird, and whatever deficiency of credit may be due 
to this neglect of the food of the young, is compensated 



* From the " American Entomologist," 1880. 



INSECTS AND THEIR REMEDIES. 117 

in part, at least, by the fact, that the number of cater- 
pillars eaten is doubtless overestimated, in comparison 
with hard insects, as their flexible skins remain in the 
stomachs of birds longer than the hard structures of in- 
sects. This is exactly contrary to the usual supposition, 
but the frequent occurrence of numbers of the emptied 
and twisted skins of cut-worms in the stomach, still rec- 
ognizable as NodiiidcB, when not even a fragment of a 
single head remains, is sufficient evidence that the hard 
parts break up and disappear before these delicate but 
yieldiug skins. Secondly, while our knowledge of the 
food of arctians, cut-worms, and grasshoppers, is suf- 
ficiently definite and full to enable us to predict with cer- 
tainty exactly what would happen, if those eaten by the 
blue birds were allowed to live and multiply, we have not 
the same complete and certain knowledge of the food and 
habits of the different genera of ichneumonid^e, the 
ground-beetles, the soldier-bugs and soldier-beetles. One 
hundred blue birds, at thirty insects each a day, would 
eat in six months about half a million insects. If this 
number of birds were destroyed, the result would be the 
preservation of about one hundred and seventy thousand 
caterpillars (ninety thousand of them cut-worms), twenty 
thousand leaf -chafers, ten thousand curculios, and eighty- 
five thousand crickets, locusts, and grasshoppers. 

^^How this horde of marauders would busy itself, if 
left undisturbed, no one can doubt. It would eat grass 
and clover, and corn and cabbages, inflicting an immense 
injury itself, and leaving a progeny which would multi- 
ply that injury indefinitely. On the other hand, would 
the two hundred thousand predaceous beetles and bugs, 
spiders and ichneumons, either prevent or counterbal- 
ance these injuries? I do not believe that we can say 
positively whether they would or not. In a discussion 
of the natural checks upon the cut-worm. Prof. Riley, in 
his First Report as State Entomologist of Missouri, men- 



118 TRUCK-FAKMIKG AT THE SOUTH. 

tions two species of iclmeumon that parasitize the larva, 
credits the spined soldier-bng and the carabid larya, 
Calosoma calidum, with its destruction, and says that 
some kinds of spiders are known to prey upon it. From 
the Eeport of the United States Entomological Commis- 
sion, for 1877, we learn that the grasshopper is preyed 
upon, at one or the other stage, by Agonodertis, Harpa- 
lus, Amara, and other carabids; by soldier-beetles, sol- 
dier-bugs, and spiders, and that certain ichneumonidae 
parasitize the eggs. It seems probable, therefore, that 
the beneficial insects eaten by blue birds include the spe- 
cial enemies of the cut-worms and grasshojopers it de- 
stroys, but he who knows best the small number of re- 
liable observations upon which our general statements of 
the food of predaceous insects rest, will have the most 
hesitation m trusting them without reserve. The proba- 
bilities seem to be against the blue bird, but the certain- 
ties are, as yet, in its favor. Finally, I would call atten- 
tion to the fact that we do not know that the normal 
rate of increase among these carnivorous and parasitic 
insects is not sufficient to keep their numbers full to the 
limit of their food supply, and to furnish also a surplus 
for destruction by birds. Just as a tree puts forth more 
leaves than it needs, and sets more fruit than it can pos- 
sibly mature; as an offset to the constant normal depre- 
dations of insects, so there is much reason to suppose 
that our insect friends have become adjusted to this 
steady drain on their numbers. There are many consid- 
erations involved here into which I can not at present 
enter. It will suffice to say that all the evidence we have 
of the increase and decrease of carnivorous insects, at- 
tendant upon the increase and decrease of the insects 
upon which they feed, tends to show that the real limit 
to their multiplication is not destruction by birds, but a 
deficient food supply, and that in relieving them from 
their feathered enemies, we should only be giving a por- 



ASPARAGUS. 



119 



tion of them the poor privilege of starving to death, in- 
stead of being eaten up. Considering, therefore, the 
certainty of the evil consequences of the destruction of 
the blue bird, and the uncertainty of the possible good, 
I believe that, notwithstanding the apparent balance 
against the species, even the most radical economist, the 
most indifferent to the beauty and pleasure of the nat- 
ural world, would have no present justification for throt- 
tling the song of the blue bird in his garden, with the 
hope of increasing thereby his annual store of hay and 
cabbage." 

The following table gives the percentages of the three 
classes of insects destroyed, and the average for the 
season : 



PERCENTAGES FOB 
EACH MONTH. 



Beneficial. 
Injurious. 
Neutral . . 



s> 












jT 


?- 












<u 


s 


1 
1 




>> 




i 


5» 


46 


28 


21 


85 


3S 


14 


11 


41 


60 


23 


55 


26 


67 


02 


13 


11 


56 


10 


34 


19 


87 



^s 



1^ 



28 
£9 
33 



CHAPTER XII. 



ASPARAGUS. — {Asparagus officinalis.) 

Asperge, French ; Spargel, German ; Aspergie, Dutch ; Asperago or 
Sparagio, Italian ; and Esperrago^ Spanish. 

Asparagus is a native of the sea coasts of Europe, and 
has long been in cultivation as one of the choicest vege- 
tables of the garden. Peter Henderson says of this vege- 
table, that the supply has never yet fully satisfied the 
demand, and that a small quantity of good asparagus has 



120 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 

frequently helped to sell a wagon load of vegetables, the 
gardener making its sale conditional upon the purchase 
of other articles. Asparagus is not only a wholesome 
article of food, but it is a pleasant diuretic and aperient, 
and is often used as an alterative or '^purifier of the 
blood." AVhen prescribed medicinally it is, as a decoc- 
tion, made by boiling two ounces of the root in one quart 
of water. There are some sixty or seventy species of as- 
paragus, of which the above named is the only edible 
one. While the shoots of the majority of the asparagus 
plants are green, some plants produce purple-topped 
shoots, owing probably to some modification of the leaf- 
green, or chlorophyll. Such plants cannot be considered 
even as varieties, as they occur in every planting of 
whatever kind of asparagus seed, and the peculiarity is 
not transmitted as a regular distinctive feature. 

Difference of opinion exists among horticulturists in 
regard to the question of varieties of this vegetable, some 
contending there are no varieties of Asparagus officinalis. 
They claim that gi'owers, in several localities, have 
brought the cultivation of asparagus to such a state of 
perfection, as to have developed a decided superiority in 
the plant; that, as like produces like, the seed of such 
plants are preferable and will continue to give a superior 
product. They hold that, until deteriorated, the Con- 
over's Colossal, the Ulm, the Argenteuil, and others, are 
only improved strains, Avhile others claim them to be dis- 
tinct varieties. Unlike the varieties of other vegetables, 
the different sorts of asparagus are distinguished neither 
by shape, nor color of leaf or flower, nor by taste, nor 
by any other character, save size, and when removed from 
favorable conditions of climate, soil, manure, and man- 
agement, they deteriorate and are undistinguishable 
from plants grown from seeds of the poorest kind. As- 
paragus is a dioecious plant, that is, the male (staminate) 
and female (pistillate) flowers are on separate roots. 



ASPAEAGUS. 121 

Only the latter bear seeds which will not be fertile un- 
less the flower is impregnated by the pollen of the for- 
mer. Thus it requires two distinct plants for the propa- 
gation of the species. Should a variety originate by 
chance, its flower would require the pollen of the previous 
variety to fertilize it; and to transmit its distinctive fea- 
tures to descendants, it must bo ever afterwards exempt 
from any altering influences of the pollen. If such breed- 
ing of varieties was probable in dioecious plants, the 
chances of cross-fertilization are such that varieties and 
sub-varieties would be constantly seen. 

KAISIN^G THE PLAI!^TS. 

Asparagus is propagated from seed, the usual practice 
being to raise the plants in a seed-bed, and trans- 
fer them to the field when one or two years old, those of 
one year being much the best. It has generally been, at 
the South, not only the uneconomical, but from an horti- 
cultural point of view, the objectionable custom to pur- 
chase the plants from Northern nurseries, at from four dol- 
lars to eight dollars per thousand, without any knowledge 
of their previous cultivation, age, or condition. This has 
been done when the plants could be grown much chea]3er, 
and much better at home, with the additional advantage of 
being able to lift them carefully and fresh from the seed- 
bed when needed; whereas, procured from a distance, they 
are stale, roughly handled and bruised. The price of the 
seed is usually about fifty cents per pound, containing 
some fourteen thousand seeds, which should supply at 
least ten thousand five hundred plants, or enough for 
three acres. At the average price of plants, as offered 
by the largest seed firms, the same number of plants 
would cost twenty-one dollars. Small, spindling shoots 
are comparatively worthless. The asparagus grower 
should start his seed-bed with the ultimate object of pro- 
ducing large, stout sprouts, (or " grass," in the language 
6 



123 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 

of the market), and to do this he must avoid stunted 
plants. A good asparagus plantation is expensive. It 
brings in no return for three years, but when it once 
comes into bearing, it remains productive for twenty 
years or more, and affords good profits. Unless it can 
be properly made from the start, it had better not be 
undertaken. 

The seed of asparagus is not injured by frost. It may 
be sown from December 1st to the middle of March. Se- 
lect high, sandy or well-drained, light land, which has 
been well manured; sow in drills two feet apart, and one 
inch deep; the plants should stand about three inches 
apart in the row. At these distances, one-fourth of an 
acre will grow twenty-one thousand seven hundred and 
eighty plants, or a saflBcient number to plant five or six 
acres. If proper care is taken of them during their 
growth, the plants will be superior to any of one year's 
growth, purchasable at any price from any Northern nurs- 
ery, simply in consequence of our longer and warmer 
growing season. In addition to this, are the advan- 
tages of being able in transplanting to return them to the 
soil, fresh and without injury to the roots. 

THE SOIL AND ITS PREPARATION. 

One of the chief claims of asparagus to popular favor 
is its early appearance in the spring; and hence, a heavy 
cold clay, particularly if badly drained, should be avoided. 
A light, high, warm, sandy soil, heavily fertilized, is 
best adapted to this crop, and it especially flourishes 
when such soil is located near its native habitat — the sea 
coast. The more manure, the better the cultivation, the 
larger and better will be the "^ grass;" therefore the land 
should be in tine, mellow condition before the application 
of the manure. After deep plowing, subsoiling, and har- 
rowing, a coating of about a hundred wagon loads of 
green stable manure to the acre, without much long litter, 



ASPAKAGUS. 



123 



should be turned under as deeply as possible. Future 
surface manurings will benefit the top soil. The field 
being thoroughly harrowed, straight rows should be laid 
off with a two-horse plow, going only in one direction, 
care being taken to have the straight cuts, or land-sides 
of the furrows, equi-distant from each other, and five feet 
apart. If the roots of the ^^lants are long, it will prob- 
ably be necessary to deepen the furrows by following the 
first with a smaller plow. In the bottom of the furrow 
it is well to apply some lasting fertilizer, as coarse 




Fig. 15.— ASPARAGUS PLANT. 

ground bone, at the rate of half a ton to the acre. If 
the land is high and warm, the crowns of the plants 
might eventually be about six inches below the surface; 
but in colder ground it would be unsafe to place them 
deeper than four inches, or the sprouts might be late in 
the spring, and a part of the plants might perish. The 
roots are round and succulent, with numerous small 
fibres, which unite to form the crown, from which the 



124 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 

sprouts appear. The crown grows laterally, the base of 
every succeeding bud, during the life of the plant, re- 
maining at about the same depth. This lateral manner 
of growth, and the position of the buds, are shown in 
fig. 15. The deeper the plant can be placed, due regard 
being had to the requisites of an early and profitable 
growth, the better, as the crowns will be less liable to 
injury at the hands and kniyes of careless cutters of 
the crop. The old method of close planting of as^^ara- 
gus upon trenched ground, with a subterranean layer, 
three feet deep, of oyster shells, or brickbats, for drain- 
age, and with the idea of preventing the too deep growth 
of the roots, has been abandoned. One might as well ex- 
pect to see stalks of corn grow thirteen feet high, and 
thick in proportion, when the grain is sown broadcast for 
fodder, as to look for good '^ grass " from the old man- 
ner of planting. 

An old asparagus plant makes an enormous growth of 
root, both as regards its mass and length, and wide 
planting admits of these roots securing a sufficiency of 
food, and of their making a vigorous growth without 
crowding. 

SETTING OUT THE PLANTS. 

The plants should be carefully lifted from the seed 
bed with a digging fork, without bruising the roots. 
These, if very long and irregular in length, may be 
shortened back a little. 

The distances in the row being marked off at from two 
to two and a half feet, or even three feet, a plant is 
dropped at each place, and the j^lanter, following, holds 
the plant at the proper depth, say six inches, against 
the land side, or cut, with the roots spread out from the 
crown in a fan-shaped manner, and, with a single sweep 
of the left hand, fixes it in position with loose soil from 
the top of the furrow. The subsequent filling in may be 



ASPAKAGUS. 125 

done with the plow; but the hoe is to be preferred, as 
the depth can be more exactly adjusted, and there is less 
danger of an accidental disturbance of the plant. For 
safety, until growth commences, the crowns should not 
be covered the entire depth, but only two or three inches; 
when the shoots haye grown several inches high, the cov- 
ering may be completed, and this will serve as a working 
of the ground, and destroy weeds. 

CULTIVATION^. 

Its vigorous growth enabling it to overtop grass, and to 
hold its own against weeds, asparagus will withstand 
as much neglect as any other vegetable; but it will 
respond to generous treatment. The expense of its 
first planting, and its care, until it commences to 
make a return two or three years later, are too great to 
admit of neglect. If the plantation has been properly 
made and properly tended, its rank and luxuriant growth 
will meet across the five-feet rows in the third year and 
smother most weeds during the summer. The crop 
should be cultivated and hoed as often as necessary to 
subdue grass and weeds. Asparagus produces seed the 
second year. As soon, therefore, as the ctalks commence 
to die in the fall, they should be chopped down and 
burned, to prevent, so far as possible, the growth of 
young seedlings among the crop, which are not readily 
eradicated, and are really weeds. 

It is useless to apply manure when the plant is at 
rest in the fall and winter, but just prior to the commence- 
ment of growth, make an application of half a ton to the 
acre of Peruvian guano, bone-flour, or ground fish guano, 
mixed with muck, woods-earth, or garden soil, and thor- 
oughly harrow it in. If stable manure is used, it should 
remain upon the surface. The material being at hand, 
a mulch thick enough and close enough to prevent the 
growth of weeds and grass, to be burned off before the 



126 TRUCK-FARMII^a AT THE SOUTH. 

winter top-dressing is to be applied, would obviate the 
necessity of frequent working, and of chopping, or mow- 
ing down the bushes, and would destroy all the seed, 
witliout causing any injury to the deeply buried roots. 
Subsequent cultivation consists in keeping down weeds 
by stirring the soil with cultivator and hoes, and in the 
annual installment of fertilizers, alternating each year 
with a different kind. 

The natural habitat of asparagus being the sea coast, 
it is benefited by applications of common salt, which 
may be used with advantage in sufficient quantity to de- 
stroy weeds, say from six hundred to eight hundred 
pounds to the acre, particularly if the crop is at a 
distance from the sea shore. The burning of a mulch 
of marsh sedge would supply the crop with other salts of 
sea water besides common salt. If the shoots are nu- 
merous and strong, a few may be cut the third year, but 
it is better to defer cutting any until the fourth season 
from the seed. 

CUTTING AlS^D MAEKETIKG. 

Asparagus knives of various shapes are made expressly 
for the purpose. The blade should be passed down along 
the shoot to the necessary depth, when by a turn of the 
handle the shoot is severed, and can be lifted out. 

Only the part of the shoot made green by exposure 
to light is eaten, the white blanched portion being tough 
and stringy. Yet fa3hion, and, therefore, the trade, de- 
mand that at least a part of the sprouts be white, other- 
wise it would not bo necessary to place the crowns so 
deeply in the ground. A change in this respect is tak- 
ing place, however, and a modification in the mode of 
planting may soon be advisable. 

Asparagus should not be cut until the shoots are four 
or five, or even six inches above the ground, so that they 
may be at least eight inches long, that being the usual 



ASPARAGUS. 



127 




-ASPARAGUS BUNCHEB, 

(Old.) 



length of tlie bunches. A plantation in full bearing and 

vigorous growth may require to be cut daily, but it 

should not be continued beyond about four weeks, for 

fear of weakening the plants. 

The bunches, to command the highest market price, 

should be four inches in 

diameter, eight inches in 

length, and about two and a 

half pounds in weight, and 

should not only consist of 

good assorted *' grass," but 

be evenly and compactly 

made. To attain these re- Fig. 18. 

quisites, without too much 

loss of time, a buncher, of which there are many 

patterns, is indispensable. It holds the proper number 

of sprouts to form the 
four-inch bunch, firm- 
ly in position for one 
tie to be made below 
the buds and another 
near the base, when 
the lower ends may be 
evenly cut off with a 
sharp knife. The sim- 
plest form of buncher 
is shown in fig. 16. It 
consists of a board with 
four pins about six 
mches long, placed four 
inches apart, and form- 
ing a square. This is 

Fig. 17.-ASPAKAGUS BUNCHER. (Modern.) pi^^g^ ^g^ij^g^ ^ ^^^11^ 

in order to make the ends of the shoots even, or it may 
be provided with a back, as in fig. 16. The ties are laid 
down, and the shoots stacked up between the pins. A 




128 TKUCK-FARMIKG AT THE SOUTH. 

more recent form Ox biinclier is given in fig. 17. In this 
the shoots are placed between two strips of brass, and 
the upper, hinged portion brought down, which firmly 
holds the bunch in proper shape until it can be tied. 

Twine and small willow twigs are sometimes used for 
ties, but Cuba Bast is the best material, and gives the 
bunches a very neat appearance. This is the inner bark 
of Paritium elatum, a large tree of the Mallow^ family. 
It is in large sheets, and sells, wholesale, at about $1.00 
per pound. A recently introduced material, called Raf- 
fia, the outer skin or cuticle of the leaf of a palm, is 
very soft and strong, and may be used for the purpose. 
Either kind should be cut of the ^^roper length and laid 
in water; this renders the material flexible, and allows 
the ties to be made more readily. 

Asparagus is sold by the bunch, that from the South 
bringing generally, in New York, from nine dollars to 
twelve dollars per dozen, and it may be packed in other 
than the usual bushel crate, although a uniformity of 
package is desirable. The bunches should all stand up- 
right, and if in more than one layer, the buds on top 
of the shoots in the lower one should be protected from 
being bruised by the stems of the layer above by some 
soft intervening material, like moss. The first cost of 
making a planting of asparagus with home-grown plants, 
as above, is about one hundred dollars per acre. 

SAYING SEED. 

Asparagus is one of the vegetables of which Southern- 
grown seed is as good as any. To save the seed, the ripe, 
red berries should be stripped off by hand, or the bushes 
cut down, and the berries threshed off. They are then 
placed in a vessel or barrel, and pounded with a wooden 
pestle to break the outer shells, which may be separated 
from the seed by washing, when the latter are dried in 
the sun and stored awav. 



ASPAKAGUS. 



139 



IlN'SECTS. 

Asparagus is subject to injury from the following 

insects: 

I^irst — The asparagus-beetle {Crioceris as2)aragi.) 
Second— The zebra-caterpillar (Mamestra picta.) 
Third — The smeared-dagger (^cro7^^c^« oZ'^miYa.) A 

small ash-gray moth, the caterpillar of which sometimes 

feeds upon the plant. 

The asparagus-beetle was introduced from Europe 

about 18G0. In a few^ years it became so numerous and 

terribly destructive, that, in 1862, some farmers on 




Fi<^. 18. — ASPARAGUS BEETLE (Cvioceris asiparagi). 
Beetle, Larva, Egg. The lines show the natural length of Egg and Beetle. 

Long Island plowed up their asparagus plantations, 
the crops having been ruined. All remedies failed, 
and it was thought the cultivation of asparagus would 
have to be abandoned on the Island, where the best in the 
country is grown. But in 1863, there appeared a deliverer 
in the form of a little black shining chalcid fly, which 
very soon checked the increase of the insects. The larvae 
eat off the bark of the stalks, preferring, and commenc- 
ing with, the tender shoots. The beetle has two broods 
in the season, and winters in the perfect state. I have 
never seen this insect at the South, but if it has not yet 
reached us, the probabilities are that it w^ill do so in time. 
The other insects named commit no serious injury. 



130 TRUCK-FARMIN^G AT THE SOUTH. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

BEAN— BUSH OR SNAP.— (P/iaseoZits vulgaris.) 

Haricot, French : Scliminkhohne^ German ; Heere Soon, Dutch ; Fagimilo, 
Italian t, Fasoles, Spanish. 

The Bean is a tender annnal, a native of India, and 
was introduced into England, about 1590. 

Owing to the ease with which it can be grown, the 
short period between seed-time and harvest (about six 
weeks), and its extensive consumption at the N"orth, the 
bean is one of the principal vegetables grown by the 
truck-farmer. Its cultivation is most profitable where 
labor is plentiful for picking the crop, as in the neighbor- 
hood of cities. 

VARIETIES. 

There are two distinct forms, the Pole or Climbing 
Bean, and the Dwarf. The latter, Pliaseolus vulgaris, 
is a low bush and produces its pods during a shorter time 
than the other. The Dwarf beans are a little more 
hardy, and the pods are smaller, but of better flavor and 
greater delicacy. As the running kinds require poles, 
the " Bush," in consequence of readier cultivation, is the 
bean of the market-gardener. 

The varieties of Bush-beans are numerous. The flat- 
podded '' Early Mohawk," is the earliest, and hardiest. 
It sells well, until the later, more tender and less stringy 
round beans come in, and command a higher price. 

The "Valentine " is now the most popular round bean, 
it having superseded the '^Refugee" or "1000 to 1." 
The several varieties of German " Wax-beans " are very 
fine, and, when in good order, sell well; but they become 
spotted more readily, and are not as extensively planted 



BEAK— BUSH OR SN'AP. 131 

as the others. The time for sowing such a tender vege- 
table, as this, cannot be definitely given, as it must de- 
pend upon the character of the season. Approximately 
it may be, for the vicinity of Savannah, from the first to 
the middle of March, later to the northward, and earlier 
to the southward; in the middle of Florida, it may be 
safely planted as early as January 10th, and still further 
south, at any time in the winter. In 1881 the first beans 
from Florida came into the Savannah market on Decem- 
ber 22d. Formerly vegetables regarded as out of season, 
could find no sale in the Northern markets, but now 
beans in limited quantities, bring fair prices in March. 

SOIL. 

The lightest land of the farm may be appropriated to 
the bean crop; but a sandy loam suits it best. Like 
other leguminous plants, it will grow fairly upon good 
soil without recent fertilization; though, like other mar- 
ket vegetables, it should be manured, and green, or 
fresh stable manure is considered most beneficial. The 
land being properly plowed and harrowed, straight fur- 
rows, if the land is level, are laid off, thirty inches apart. 
The manure is drilled from the tail of a cart, or with a 
manure distributor, at the rate of thirty wagon loads to 
the acre, then covered by the plow. The resulting ridge 
beds are leveled by means of a board attached to a plow 
beam, taking two at a time, or by hoe or rake. 

To avoid repetitions, it may be stated here, that, for 
all vegetables hereafter to be treated, when manuring 
in the drill and planting on beds are mentioned, these 
operations of covering the manure and partly leveling 
the bed, must be understood to have preceded the putting 
in of the seed. 

SOWIl^G THE SEED. 

The methods o-f depositing the seeds are various. One 
of the very best trucl ers in the vicinity of Savannah has 



132 TRUCK-FARMIKG AT THE SOUTH. 

constructed an instrument for making holes, upon the 
previously raked beds, exactly an inch and a half deep, 
and three inches apart. Into these even his poorest 
hands may properly drop the beans. The implement 
consists of a wheel upon the periphery, or outer rim, to 
which are fixed pegs of the desired length and the proper 
distance apart. Another very successful farmer sows his 
beans by hand, in a wide furrow three inches deep, and 
covers them an inch and a half deep with a rake. The 
former claims a greater uniformity of showing above 
ground, a nicer appearance, a saving of seed, and greater 
facility in working the crop, as the hoe and cultivator 
may run close to the straight row. The other claims 
that his plants, in the wide furrow, come up in a sort of 
quincunx order, support each other, and that he gets more 
plants upon the same area. Others again open the drills 
by a hoe, or small bull-tongue plow and use a seed drill 
to sow the seed, and cover by rake, or board, or by means 
of the covering attachment with which the drill is pro- 
vided. The drill must of course be arranged to work 
accurately and satisfactorily, when its use will prove the 
most expeditious and the cheaj^est method of planting. 

CULTIVATIOK. 

When the plants are three or four inches high, the 
cultivator may be run between the rows, and just before 
the buds appear, the plow and hoe should be used to land 
up or draw soil to the stems, a useful operation, and the 
last in the cultivation of the crop, which is, of course, 
only to be performed in dry weather. 

PICKIi^G AND PACKIK'G. 

The pods should be picked. The picking should be 
done with as little disturbance of the roots as possible, 
and before the seeds become large enough to bulge 
out the pods, and while yet crisp enough to ^^snap" 



BEAi^ — BUSH OR SN^AP. 133 

when bent. Beans are apt to shrink in the package, 
and a little wetting prior to packing, in this case, 
is less objectionable. The beans should be laid reg- 
ularly in the crate, well shaken down, and firmly packed. 
The crop lasts some three weeks, and about six pickings 
are usually made. A fair yield per acre, is one hundred 
and fifty crates, although more are sometimes made, and 
the prices range from one dollar to four dollars per crate, 
according to earliness and demand. 

II^'SECTS. 

Beans are such an early crop, and the pods are picked 
at such an early stage of growth, that the insects infest- 




Fig. 19, — ^BEAN WEEVIL {Bi'ucTius fobcB). 

ing them rarely damage the market-gardener's crop to 
any extent. 

They are as follows: 

First. — The Bean-weevil {BrucliusfahcB.) 

Second. ^The Yellow Bear Caterpillar, the larva of 
the Miller-moth {Spilosoma Virgi7iica). 

Third. — The Fall web- worm {Hyphantria textor). 

Fourth.— The Blister-beetles, such as the Striped 
(Lytta vittata), the Ash-colored (L. cmerea), and the 
Margined Blister-beetles {L. marginatd), which are, how- 
ever, more hurtful to the Irish potato. 



134 TRUCK-FARMIKG AT THE SOUTH. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

BEET {Beta vulgaris). 

Bettarave, French ; Rothe-Eilbe, German ; Blet or Eroot, Dutch ; Barha 
Biettola, Italian ; Bettarage, Spanish. 

The Beet is a biennial, tap-rooted plant, with some- 
what fleshy leaves; it is a native of the sea coast of 
Southern Europe, and has been cultivated in England 
since 1656. 

It is only within the past year or two, that the beet 
has been grown for shipment to any extent south of 
Norfolk, although it has for many years been one of the 
regular Bermuda crops. Next to the cabbage, this is 
one of the most extensively and profitably cultivated 
vegetables at the North, and it is probably destined to 
stand high in the estimation of the truck-farmer. 

VAEIETIES. 

The turnip-rooted varieties are the earliest and best to 
grow at the South, and of these the ^^ Egyptian " or '^ Eed 
Egyptian Turnip" stands first, notwithstanding the 
seed is higher in price than any other sort. The ^' Early 
Blood Turnip " is next in value. The ^' Bassano " is the 
earliest variety, but objectionable in consequence of its 
turning a light color in boiling. 

SOIL AND SOWIKG. 

Beets, like the ruta-baga, may be sown for local mar- 
kets in September and October; but in consequence of 
sudden changes of weather, success at this season is 
doubtful. Heavy rains and hot baking suns, whether 
the seed be up or not, may destroy a sowing. Although 
hardy, freezing will kill very young beets, and the 



BEET. 135 

safest date for sowing near Savannah is about Janu- 
ary 10th, and earlier or later, according to latitude. In 
middle Florida the beet may be sown through November 
and December. Like all tap-rooted plants, the beet de- 
lights in a deep, rich, loose soil, a low, but thoroughly 
drained, sandy mould being the best. If loamy, let the 
soil be deeply stirred, freed from clods and lumps, and 
made fine and mellow. 

It is desirable to have clean and smooth roots, and 
fresh stable manure in the drill is objectionable- as it 





Fig. 20.— EGrPTIAN BEET. Fig. 21. — EARLY BLOOD TURNIP BEET. 

tends to make them branch or to produce '^'fingers and 
toes." Any rank manure in the drill, like night-soil, is 
objectionable, and hog manure is said to communicate an 
unpleasant flavor to the roots. Beets require a nitroge- 
nous fertilizer, and well-rotted stable manure, thirty loads 
to the acre, broadcast, supplemented with five hundred 
pounds of Peruvian guano, or with three hundred pounds 
of nitrate of soda; or three-fourths of a ton of the guano, 
or half a ton of nitrate of soda, composted with muck, will 
suffice without the stable manure. But in this case, the 
land should have previously produced some well-manured 
crop. As this plant is a native of the sea shore, an ap- 
plication of twelve bushels of salt per acre is beneficial to 
crops distant from the coast. If the cultivation of the 
beet crop is to be entirely by hand, the seed may be sown 



136 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 

three-fourths of an inch, or one inch deep, with a hand 
drill in rows, fifteen to eighteen inches apart. On level 
ground sow in narrow ''lands/' say thirty feet wide, 
which will afford additional surface drainage. If the 
planting is to be on a large scale, the distance between 
the rows must be from thirty to thirty-six inches, accord- 
ing to the size of the cultiyator. In sowing and weed- 
ing, bear in mind that each grain contains several seeds. 
Owing to its slow germination, beet seed is often soaked 
in warm water. — See chapter on '^ Seeds." The quantity 
of seed required to sow an acre is from four to eight 
pounds, according to the above-mentioned distances. 

CULTIVATIOJiT. 

The young plants should not be allowed to crowd each 
other. If the stand is close, it is well to chop out spaces 
in the row with a narrow hoe, and subsequently, when 
the plants are about two inches high, they should be 
thinned out to stand from four to six inches apart. 
Vacant spaces may be supplied; but transplanted turnip- 
rooted beets are not apt to make smooth roots. Subse- 
quent cultivation consists in stirring the surface between 
the rows, working as near the beets as possible, and in 
keeping the crop free from weeds. Frequent hoeings 
between the narrow rows and some hand-weeding will be 
necessary. For the wider rows, one plowing, the use of 
the cultivator twice, and one hoeing may suffice in favor- 
able seasons, but more should be given if needed. 

MARKETIN"G. 

Beets must be marketed while tender, and before they 
are full grown. When about three inches in diameter, 
they are large enough for shipment. The leaves are cut 
off within about three inches of the roots, which, un- 
washed, are then to be closely and regularly packed in 
well- ventilated barrels, covered with cloth. The prices 



CABBAGE 137 

of the past season ranged from two dollars per barrel up- 
wards; as mucli as seven dollars and fifty cents having 
been secured for some marketed from middle Florida. 
The beet is, in this country, remarkably free from insect 
depredations. 



CHAPTEE XV. 

CABBAGE (Brassica oleraeed). 

Choupomme, or Cabas blanc, French ; Kopfkohl, German ; Kool, Dutch ; 
Cavolo, Itah'an ; Berza, Spanish. 

The Cabbage was a favorite culinary vegetable of the 
Romans, who introduced its cultivation into England 
before the Christian era, although it grows wild along 
the sea shore of that country, particularly near Dover, 
where it is abundant on the chalk cliffs. 

Cultivation has evolved from the wild plant very 
many sorts and varieties. Of these, the truck-farmer 
of the extreme South is at present concerned with only 
a few select varieties of the common or heading cabbage 
and with the cauliflower, kale being grown only at Nor- 
folk and vicinity. Possibly the large German element 
in the populations of the Northern cities may in time 
provide a market for kohl rabi. 

VAEIETIES. 

Climate affects the cabbage more, perhaps, than it 
does any other vegetable ; and a variety growing, as to 
appearance, indifferently well in both countries;, may be 
considered superior in England, and be discarded as 
worthless in America, while some sorts, which grow 
satisfactorily in one region, may fail in another not very 
distant. 



138 



TRUCK-FARMIKG AT THE SOUTH. 



A yariety suitable for cultivation should (1) be sure to 
form heads; (2) produce medium to large heads; (3) the 
heads should be yery hard and compact; and (4) it 
should be a popular kind in the majority of the princi- 
pal markets. 

Some varieties, like the *' Schweinfurth," are bulky and 
delicate, but of s,uch loose structure as to be useless for 
shipment, as they would shrink very much in the pack- 
age. On the other hand, a barrel properly packed with 
a solid-headed yariety, would shrink to a very limited 




FiP;. 23. — WINNINGSTADT 

extent in transit, and still be full upon arrival in mar- 
ket, to the satisfaction of the buyer. The two varieties 
combining all desirable features in the highest degree, 
and, at the same time, best adapted to our climate, are 
the ^^Winningstadt" and the ^'Brunswick." The for- 
mer is somcAvhat the smaller, but owing to its more com- 
pact habit of growth, a sufficiently larger number may 
be grown to the acre, to make up for the difPerence in 
individual size. The retail dealer will realize more 
money from a barrel of fine medium sized cabbages than 
from one containing a smaller number of very large 
heads. It is for this reason, probably, that the Winning- 
stadt enjoys a slight preference. The ''Early Summer" 
is considered a reliable variety, and is cultivated for the 
Northern markets. There is no better variety, if the 



CABBAGE. 



139 



seeds are of pure stock, for forming uniformly solid heads, 
than the ''Jersey Wakefield"; but it is small and liable 
to burst open when in vigorous growth, particularly in 
warm, rainy weather, following a drouth. The remedy 




Fiff. 23.— fottler's brunswiok. 



for this is ''root-pruning," which is done by pushing 
over the plants slightly, to break some of the roots, or 
by cutting down alongside of them with a spade. The 
necessity for this operation would condemn a variety, 
however admirable in other respects. American seeds 




Fig. 24.— JERSEY WAKEFIELD. 

are considered as producing more hardy plants than the 
imported; therefore, for a crop to head well in winter, 
the American "Flat Dutch" is the best variety, with 
"Fottler's Brunswick," which is an American variety of 
the German "Brunswick" cabbage, as second choice. 



140 TRUCK-FAEMIKG AT THE SOUTH. 

SEEDS AKD SOWIKG. 

Cabbages from imported seed are thought to be more 
certain to head, and in the vicinity of Savannah, those 
from Germany are preferred, however it may be in other 
localities. 

It is of more importance to have seed of a good strain 
of the cabbage than of any other vegetable. Poor seeds 
of any of the genus Brassica are dear at any price. 

In consequence of its good keeping qualities, the cab- 
bage can be and is used in the United States throughout 
the year. The South is supplied with Northern grown 
stock during the hot summer months, and in the winter, 
the first shipments arriving about the middle of July. 
In turn, the North procures its supply from us after the 
exhaustion of the stores of wintered cabbages, dating 
from about March 1st, and continuing until June. 
Owing to its universal consumption, the markets have 
never yet been glutted with cabbage. Were its use less 
universal, as the Florida, Georgia, and Carolina crops 
are all marketed during the same period, the price might 
fall below a paying standard. The opening of the west- 
ern and north-western markets for the less perishable 
articles of the truck-farmer, by lower railroad freights 
and safer transportation facilities, makes it probable that 
many years will elapse before sufficient areas are appro- 
priated to the cultivation of such vegetables, as to cause 
the supply to exceed the demand. Cabbages are also 
grown to supply other than the Northern markets, of 
which Ave will speak hereafter. The seed to j^roduce 
plants for the more important shipping crop is best sown 
between October 1st and 15th. It may be sown later; 
but as the plants are subjected to severely cold weather in 
December, it is important that they be large enough at 
that time to withstand hard frosts. When the ther- 
mometer falls below twenty-four degrees, they are likely 
to be killed. 



CABBAGE. 141 

To secure the necessary hardiness, and low, stocky 
growth, the seed should be sown thinly on rather light, 
unmanured soil. Instead of making a sowing in the 
open air later than Noyember 1st, the careful gardener 
will provide against losses by frost, by sowing under 
glass in cold frames, about I^ovember 15th. The cold 
frame plants will only be used in case those in the open 
ground have been killed or injured by freezing, or have 
grown too large to be transplanted for a later crop. To 
render the plants as hardy as possible, the soil of the 
frames should not be manured, and it should be kept as 
dry as the health of the plants will permit. Sashes 
must not be used, day or night, to force the plants, but 
are only to be put on at night for protection against ap- 
prehended black frost. 

For the location of a cabbage seed bed in the open air, 
see chapter on * ^Insects." A deep and freshly stirred soil 
is not indispensable to produce good plants, and, where 
moles are numerous, they are very apt to haunt a bed 
freshly stirred, and destroy many young plants. The 
bed may be thrown up by the plow a fortnight or more 
before the seed is to be sown. When it is raked off later, 
many young weeds, which might have become annoying, 
will be destroyed. 

The seed bed should be about four feet wide, level on 
top, to avoid washing by heavy rains, and elevated a few 
inches above the general surface. The seed is sown from 
one-fourth to one -half an inch deep, according to the 
character of the soil. Make the drills across the bed four 
to five inches apart, to allow the earth to be stirred be- 
tween the rows, firming the soil by the roller or by a 
patting board. When sown under glass, the drills may 
be three and a half inches apart. If the soil is dry, the 
beds may require watering to cause the seed to germi- 
nate. It is not advisable to sow any seed within two or 
three inches of the back of the frame, or the plants will 



142 TRUCK-FARMIKG AT THE SOUTH. 

grow spindling from the efc'ects of the heat reflected 
from the hoards. Do not sow as thickly near the front 
as in the middle of the hed, lest in wet weather the plants 
may damp o2 while young. 

At the South, at the planting season, so many con- 
tingencies affect the sprouting of the seed and the safety 
of the young plants, when placed in the open air, that 
no definite quantity of seed, which, will suffice for a 
given area, can be stated. Among these adverse influ- 
ences are hot baking suns, heavy rains, cut-worms, grass- 
worms {Lcqjlirygma frugiperda), and grasshoppers. 

Peter Henderson, one of the best authorities on mar- 
ket gardening at the North, says an ounce of seed will 
produce two thousand plants — there are about ten thou- 
sand cabbage seeds in an ounce — and A. S. Fuller, another 
good authority, estimates that an acre will require from a 
pound to a pound and a half of seed, or from one hundred 
and sixty thousand to two hundred and forty thousand 
seeds. I have sown pounds of seed without getting even 
a single plant. The only advice to be given is: to make 
frequent sowings and on different parts of the farm, and 
to follow the suggestion in the chapter on '^Insects." If 
the seed is sound and properly sown under glass and 
cared for, few will fail to furnish available plants. 

SOIL AND ITS PREPAIIATION. 

The land best adapted to raise spring cabbages for ship- 
ment, is a moist, sandy loam, if well drained. Any good 
garden soil, properly enriched and well prepared, will an- 
swer, however, if it be not too light and sandy; on such 
soils the plants maybe affected by the hot suns in March 
and April, just at the heading season. A newly cleared, 
well-drained mould is excellent. The chalk cliffs of the 
English sea shore being the native habitat of the cabbage, 
admirable crops of superior quality may be produced near 



CABBAGE. 143 

our coast under the influence of the moist sea air, wher- 
ever the soil is adapted to this plant. Lime is very ben- 
eficial to the whole cabbage family, and soil, otherwise of 
desirable quality, on the immediate sea coast of the main- 
land, or on any of the Sea Islands, if well supplied with 
crumbling oyster-shells, the rubbish of Indian camps, 
cannot be surpassed for this vegetable. That these ac- 
cumulations of oyster shells, with a few shells of the 
clam and conch, are of Indian origin, is proven by the 
frequent occurrence among them of pieces of Indian pot- 
tery. 

Heavy soils require to be more deeply stirred by the 
turniug and the subsoil plows, and more frequently har- 
rowed, than those of lighter character. 

At the North, land consecutively cropped with cab- 
bages seems to become infested with the cause, whatever 
it may be, of the disease of the root called '' clubfoot;" 
an additional reason for rotation in cabbage culture. 
This appears to be less the case, when the land is plenti- 
fully suj)plied with lime naturally, or when it is used as 
a manurial application. Although the cabbage is little 
affected with this disease at the South, it is not well to 
have cabbages follow cabbages on the same ground. 

The richer the manuring, in excess of whp.t any possi- 
ble crop could be able to take from the soil, and the bet- 
ter the preparation, the larger will not only be the indi- 
vidual heads, and, therefore, the weight of the entire 
produce, but the more certainty will there be of the 
whole crop heading up uniformly. 

The table opposite shows the composition of fifty tons- 
equal to eighty-eight wagon loads of loose stable manure, 
holding thirty bushels, or one thousand one hundred and 
twenty-five pounds, each; and that of a crop of twenty- 
five tons of cabbages, both according to the analyses of 
Prof. E. Wolff. 



144 



TRUCK-FARMI^^G AT THE SOUTH. 



^50 Tons ofi^^ rp^j^g ^j. 
\fresh Stable cabbages 

Manure ^^^fj^ 

contain 



Nitrogen 

Potash . 

Phosphoric acid 

Soda 

Lime 

Mascnesia 



546 lbs. 
520 " 
280 " 
100 " 
210 " 
140 " 



120 lbs. 

315 " 
70 " 
45 " 

155 " 
30 " 



A study of the above table will show: 

First. — That a crop of twenty-five tons of cabbages will 
exhaust within fifty-five pounds all the lime contained in 
an application of fifty tons of stable manure, and, if only 
that quantity were aj)plied, an English or Northern yield 
of fifty tons, not an excessive estimate, under their closer 
planting, would require one hundred pounds more of 
lime than is contained in the manure. As was stated 
before, nearly all land holds sufficient lime for ordinary 
crops; but, unless the soil is rich in this component 
(often the case on the coast), land used for cabbage crops 
would be benefited by a dressing of lime, of about thirty 
bushels to the acre, every three or four years. It is not 
only a chief constituent of the crop, but it renders the 
nitrogen in the soil more available. 

Second. — That exceedingly rich land is required for a 
good crop of cabbages; therefore, as no crop can take up 
all the nitrogen and other plant food contained in an ap- 
plication of manure, the larger the amount of this plant 
food and the greater its concentration and availability, 
the more satisfactory will be the result. 

Third. — That if the stable manure used is deficient in 
liquid excrement, or has been exposed to leaching rains, 
fifty tons should be supplemented either with good Peru- 
vian guano, or with nitrate of soda and an acid phosphate, 
or with night-soil. If stable, or any other bulky or com- 
posted manure is to be used, it is best to apply it broad- 
cast for cabbage, after the land has been thoroughly pre- 



CABBAGE. 145 

pared by plow and harrow, and then to turn it into beds 
with a one-horse plow. 

For applying bulky manures, either broadcast or in drill, 
for cabbages, Irish potatoes, or other crops, the truck-farm- 
ers who plant m the yicinity of Savannah on an exten- 
sive scale use a manure-spreader. This applies the manure 
not only evenly at a certain rate, which is very well reg- 
ulated, but it cuts up and mixes the manure during the 
distribution. Of stable manure accumulated under shel- 
ter and well-rotted Ti^ithout having been fire-fanged, 
forty two-horse wagon loads to the acre on good land, 
which has previously been fertilized for a vegetable crop, 
is a fair manuring. If of less valuable quality, the quan- 
tity should be increased, or its character improved by 
addmg guano, etc., as above recommended. Instead of 
stable manure, a good compost applied in quantity pro- 
portionate to its quality, may be used. This may con- 
sist of Peruvian guano, or some reliable ammoniated 
superphosphate of lime (acid phosphate), or of cotton 
seed, or night-soil, composted with muck or leaf-mould. 
If there be a specific manure for cabbage, it is good, 
pure, fine bone-flour. 

Of the crops raised by the trunk-farmer, there are one 
or two of which I may claim, without egotism, to have 
produced stock of superior quality. Among these are 
the two members of the Brassica genus, cultivated under 
this latitude for the Northern markets. Being situated 
too distant from the city to procure a satisfactory sup- 
ply of stable manure, I cannot too urgently impress upon 
my fellow-farmers, similarly situated, the indispensability 
of plowing under the *^ Clover of the South," our cow 
pea, for successful cabbage culture, and indeed, although 
perhaps in less degree, for the growing of any other 
crop. It should precede for them every other application 
of manure for cabbages. Soda and potash are inter- 
changeable in the composition of plants. Thus a plant 
7 



146 



TRUCK-FAEMIXG AT THE SOUTH. 



grown on a soil rich in the former, but poor in the latter, 
will contain much more soda than potash, and vice versa. 
The large preponderance of soda in the following analysis 
of the cow pea is attributable to the fact, that it grew 
upon soil near Chapel Hill, N. C, which, in dry weather, 
is sometimes coated white with carbonate of soda. 

TABLE SHOWING THE COMPARATIVE FERTILIZING VALUE OF COW PEA 
VINES AND RED CLOVER. 











«i 
















e 


s.. 


O 
•<;* 






e 




'5 


3 


CO 


ime. 
Acid. 




1 


^ 
S 


s 
o 

s 




Rh 


^ 


>A 


^ 


C<5 


c? 


o 


'^ 


Cow pea vines 


10.88 


17.13 


4.96 


16.58 


6.84 


1.68 


0.70 


0.14 


13.20 


Red clover, ripe 


23.21 


1.07 


8.21 


22.85 


6.66 


2.02 


1.78 


2.50 


32.60 



Doubtless fine cabbages may be raised directly from the 
seed sown in place, instead of raising the plants in a 
seed-bed and then transplanting them. Experience and 
theory have long since shown the expediency of trans- 
ferring the plants from the seed-bed to the open ground. 
By the former practice, nothing is gained and something 
is lost. Apart from the advantages of transplanting — 
(see chapter on that subject), we have, on a very small 
area, say one hundred and fifty square feet, a sufficient 
number of plants to set an acre. With at least one work- 
ing in the first six weeks, of the land to which the plants 
are transferred, we avoid the possible damage to the soil, 
during six weeks of fall weather, by heavy packing rains, 
and we place the manure fresh and concentrated around 
the newly-formed roots, when the plant has sufficiently 
advanced in growth to make use of it. 

TRANSPLAI^TIl^G. 

Cabbages in our southern climates are marketable, 
though not full-grown, in about five months from the 
seed, the time depending upon the degree of moisture and 



CABBAGE. 147 

the warmth of the season. Plants, if large enough, may 
be put out about November 1st, and successively, 
whenever circumstances are favorable, until January 
1st. After this date, successful marketing will be more 
doubtful, although in case of loss by freezing, well-grown, 
sturdy plants, put out up to February 1st, as far north 
as Savannah, may come in early enough to anticipate the 
Norfolk crop. 

When a plant is pulled from the seed-bed, the tap-root 
will probably be so shortened as to encourage the emis- 
sion of numerous new fibrous roots. If not, its extremity 
should be pinched off. If the roots are puddled, they 
are more apt to take root promptly. This is done by 
making a mush or mud of clay, fresh cow dung and 
water, or of clay, or soil and some weak solution of 
any fertilizer, stirring it up to form a mixture as thick 
as cream. The roots of the plants are to be dipped in 
this, and if the plants are kept in the shade for twenty- 
four hours, young rootlets will commence to grow; but 
the plants must not be exposed to dryness, until the roots 
are in the soil. Puddling is not a necessary operation. 

Should a drouth prevail during the whole proper 
transplanting season, watering during the jDrocess may 
be indispensable on very light soil. In such rare con- 
tingency a weak liquid manure is better than pure water. 

The stems of all the plants of the Brassica genus 
are the most vulnerable part; to protect these from frost, 
to place the extremity of the root nearer to moisture, 
to encourage the formation of roots along the inserted 
stem, and finally, to secure the plant more firmly in the 
soil, it should be planted down to the stalk of the up- 
permost leaf, or very nearly to the crown of the plant. 

Although occasionally planted close together, the proper 
distance for Winningstadt, and other compactly-growing 
varieties, is eighteen inches in the row, and for the 
Brunswick, and other large kinds, from twenty-one to 



148 TRUCK-FARMIls^G AT THE SOUTH. 

twenty-four inches, the beds, or rows, being three and a 
half and four feet apart respectively. 

CULTIVATION^. 

Plants cultiyated, like the cabbage, for their foliage, 
should be pushed by frequent stirring of the soil. No 
vegetable responds more promptly to generous treatment 
than this. As soon as the plants commence to grow, the 
rows may be barred off by the plow to loosen the soil, 
but it must by no means be deferred late enough to stunt 
them by injuring the roots. (See chapter on " Insects*"). 
Under ordinary circumstances, two or three plowings, 
exclusive of the above, the return of the soil to the beds, 
and a couple of hoeings may be sufficient for this crop. 

In garden culture, and on a small scale, it is recom- 
mended to hoe every few days, and only while the dew is 
on; but the truck-farmer cannot make a hobby of his 
cabbage field to the neglect of other crops, however val- 
uable this particular one may be. 

GATHERING THE CROP ANTf MARKETING. 

The Northern demand generally commences early in 
March, and the crop should then be in full heading to 
meet it. 

Judgment and experience are needed to cut cabbages 
properly. Before maturity, a head should be soft, that 
a little later will become hard and compact. Although 
a matured head presents a peculiar appearance, recog- 
nizable by an experienced grower, in i3art by becoming 
paler on top, it should be grasped and felt with the left 
hand, before the hatchet (which, with a little longer 
handle than usual, is the best cutting tool,) is applied. 
In preparing the heads for market, only a few outer leaves 
should be left to protect them from bruising in the pack- 
age and, for the same reason, the stems should be trim- 
med close to the heads. 



CABBAGE. 



149 



By comparing the valuable organic matter contained 
in clover, cabbage, and turnips, it will be seen that the 
cabbage outranks both as food for cattle. 







« 


^ 










'8 . . 

2^S 


t^.^ 




^ 




jI 




5- =0 J, 




1) 






§^S 


,.^-S§ 




■a 




L^ 


« ov 


Cia*^ 


^^ 


s 




fe: 


'^ 


•S 


§ 


a 


Clover 


80 


3.3 


7.7 


0.7 


4.5 


Cabbage 


90 


1.5 


6.8 


0.4 


2.0 


Turnip 


92 


1.1 


5.1 


0.1 


1.0 





The best use, therefore, to make of the waste leaves, 
is to feed them to stock. Unless so utilized, the heads 
had better be cut out so that very little subsequent trim- 
ming may be required, and the leaves and stalks plowed 
under, instead of allowing them to grow, to the detriment 
of the land. The refuse, if preferred, may be conveyed 
to the compost heap, which should be at some distance 
from human habitation. By the use of sufficient cover- 
ing material, soil, or muck, the offensive gases (phos- 
phoretted and sulphuretted hydrogen) may be absorbed. 
With such bulky crops as the cabbage, packing should 
be done near the field. During the cooler morning 
hours and cloudy weather, it may proceed in the open 
air, but during hot sunshine, it were better under shel- 
ter, for fear of subsequent heating in the packages. 

Crates should only be used when barrels cannot be had, 
the latter being preferred by the trade. They must be 
properly ventilated, however, by six holes in the sides. 
They are not double headed, but are covered with cloth, 
the contents generally bulging about six inches above the 
top. 

. Whatever package is used, the cabbage should be 
evenly and firmly packed, using considerable force, so 
that no displacements and consequent bruising may oc- 
cur during transportation. Each variety should be 
marketed in separate packages, and it is well, even with 



150 TRUCK-FARMIXG AT THE SOUTH. 

cabbages, to assort the sizes, although this is not generally 
done. A barrel will contain from eighteen large Bruns- 
wicks to fifty of the Winnings tadt, as small as should be 
shipped, although smaller will sell. An equal crop of 
the two varieties will average seven thousand two hun- 
dred and sixty plants per acre. With reliable seed, and 
under favorable circumstances, six thousand eight hun- 
dred of these should produce marketable heads. 

From one hundred and seventy to two hundred barrels 
per acre is a good crop. One of the most successful 
gardeners near Savannah marketed one thousand seven 
hundred barrels from eight acres, which averaged, in the 
Northern markets, four dollars per barrel gross. His 
crop, closely planted, was manured with forty tvvo-horse- 
wagon loads of unsheltered stable manure and night-soil, 
supplemented with Peruvian guano. 

My own shipments last year averaged four dollars and 
fifty-three cents, principally in the N'ew York and Bos- 
ton markets. This may have been due to better sales 
rather than to the superior quality of the cabbages, and 
good packing may have had something to do with it. 

It must, however, be stated that prices ruled unpre- 
cedentedly high during the season of 1882. 

Freights from Savannah to New York and Boston 
were fifty cents per barrel. Commissions on sales were 
from seven to eight per cent. 

Near Norfolk a local variety of cabbage is cultivated, 
known as '' Tait's Extra Early." The seeds of this are 
sown about the last of August, the croj) is transplanted 
in November, and is ready for market about April 1st. 
Jersey Wakefield, and Large York, sown about Sept. 
20th, and set out in early winter, will come in about the 
same time. Seeds of the last two kinds, if sown for the 
main crop, under glass in October, and the plants put out 
in February, will come in later, but produce much the 
best cabbages. 



CABBAGE. 151 

During a glut in the markets, Norfolk cabbages may 
not pay the freight. The maximum price is three dol- 
lars and a quarter per barrel. 

It is probably owing to the fact that larger varieties 
are grown near Charleston and Savannah, that the early 
arrivals from Norfolk do not seriously affect the prices of 
shipments made at the same time from more southern 
and distant points. 

The cabbage crop is marketed early enough to be fol- 
lowed by a planting of corn, to be succeeded in turn by 
fall turnips; or the land may be used for a second crop of 
Irish potatoes, in which the manure would be available. 
Such is the management of the spring cabbage crop for 
the Northern markets. The period during which the 
truck-farmer markets his crops for shipment, is confined 
to the five months from March to July inclusive. Ow- 
ing to the great number of small patches of all kinds of 
common vegetables, owned by negroes and whites near 
the city, the supply is so well up to the demand, that the 
majority of truck-farmers have found it unprofitable to 
attend the regular local market. If confined exclusively 
to the Northern, and the local sales of vegetables, the 
growers would have no income during seven months of the 
year; hence on the lines of the railroads truck-farming is 
generally an adjunct to cotton planting, and in Florida to 
that and to orange growing. Cabbage is one of the few 
vegetables that may be made available for the markets 
of the interior, where there arises a demand during the 
later winter months. The variety best adapted to this 
season is the more hardy American ^^Flat Dutch." 
Seed for this crop may be sown from June to September; 
but the earlier the better, as cabbage to head in time 
for the winter crop should ^^bud," or commence to 
head, before cold weather. Owing to hot suns and 
heavy rains, and destructive insects, it is difficult to 
raise the plants. The soil for the seed-bed may be 



152 TRUCK-FARMIIS^G AT THE SOUTH. 

richer than for the later crop. Although cabbage re- 
quires an open exposure, the seed-bed may be under the 
partial shade of trees, but not near enough to be under 
their drip. If the seed-bed is protected by a screen, it 
should be high enough (seven to eight feet) and open 
enough to admit air and light. A mat made of our com- 
mon large cane admits of removal occasionally, and the 
thickening of the stem at the joints prevents the total 
exclusion of air and light. The plants for this crop are 
generally put out from August to the middle of October. 
There is no material difference in the management of the 
two crops. Cabbages are shijDped in grain sacks or bar- 
rels to the West and the upper interior cities of Georgia. 
The prices in Atlanta were from two and a half to five 
cents per pound, at wdiolesale, for the crop of 1882. 

It is now impossible to say what were the insect enemies 
of the cabbage in the country where it was indigenous, and 
before its succulence and delicacy had increased and its 
cultivation had extended over so large a part of the globe. 
We have imported two of its pests: the Eape-butterfly and 
the Cabbage plant-louse from Europe, and may in turn 
export some of our native plagues to other countries. 
The cabbage is certainly more infested by destructive in- 
sects than any other cultivated vegetable. Those to the 
attacks of which it is subject at the South, are: 

1. The AYavy-striped Flea-beetle {Haltica striolata). 

2. The Cabbage Botys (Botys repetitalis). 

3. Cabbage Plutella {Plutella cniciferariim). 

4. The Cabbage Plusia {Plusia hrassicce). 

5. The Eape Butterfly (Pieris rapce). 

6. The Pot-herb Butterfly {Pieris oleracea). 

7. The Southern Cabbage Butterfly (PierisProtodice). 

8. The Zebra Caterpillar {Mamestra pida). 

9. The Cabbage Pionea {Pionea rimosalis). 

10. The Cabbage Plant-louse {Aphis hrassicce). 

11. The Harlequin Bug {Slrachia liistrionica). 



CABBAGE. 



153 



12. The Tarnished Plant-bug (Capsus oUmeatus). 

13. The False Chinch-Bug {Nysius destructor.^ 

FLEA-BEETLE. 

The first in order to attack the plant in its earliest 
growth, and before the appearance of rough leaves, is the 
Flea-beetle in the perfect state. Lime or soot, dusted on 
the young plants, while wet with dew, seems distasteful 
enough to the insect to drive it off. The larva also in- 
jures the roots of larger cabbage plants. 

GREEN CABBAGE-WORMS. 

The little green worm of the Cabbage Botys [Botys re- 
petitalis), feeds upon the lower leaves of young plants, 




Fig. 25.— CABBAGE PLUSIA {Flitsia hrossicce.) 
a, Larva ; b, Chrysalis ; c. Moth, male. 

Avhile webbed up near the ground with a few grains of 
sand. At present it does no material damage, but were 
it to become as numerous on the cabbage, as it sometimes 
is on the Eag-weed {Amlrosia arteinisimfolia), it might 
be injurious. 

The little pale-green, frisky worm of the ash-gray 



154 



TRUCK-FA RMIKG AT THE SOUTH. 



moth, the Cabbage Pkitella {Plutella cruciferarum) I 
have often found on very young seedlings in cold-frames. 
This worm is sometimes found in great numbers, but it 
is fortunately too small to inflict serious harm. It gen- 
erally attacks only the outer leaves, when the cabbage 
has headed. Very many of the worms have the eggs of a 
little black inchneumon fly laid upon them. The cocoon 
of the worm resembles that of the fly, but it is more 
gauze like, while that of the fly looks like yellow opaque 
paper. If these two worms were to become troublesome. 




Fig. 26. — RAPE BUTTERFLY {Reris rapes), 
a, Larva ; b, Chrysalis ; c, Female ; d, Male. 

they might be poisoned, but they are as yet not suf- 
ficiently injurious to warrant the trouble. 

The most destructive green cabbage-worm at the South, 
is the looping, or half -measuring, larva of the night- 
flying, or noctuid moth, the Cabbage Plusia {Plusia 
Irassicm), All cabbage growers know how these, with 
the help of some others, honey-comb cabbages in the 
spring. 



CABBAGE, 



165 



LIGHT-COLORED CABBAGE-WORMS. 

The following three, viz., the Eape Butterfly (Pieris 
rajjce), the Pot-herb Butterfly (P. oleracea), and the 
Southern Cabbage-Butterfly (P. Protodice), are white or 
cream- colored butterflies. The first two are more nu- 
merous and destructive than the third, our native South- 
ern species. The larvae and butterflies bear a general 
resemblance to each other, though they differ in their 
markings, as will be seen by an examination of the 
engravings. 

All of these cabbage-worms have their insect enemies. 
The Pot-herb Butterfly has lately been kept in check by 





Fig. 27. — POT-HERB BUTTERFLY {P.evis olerceco). 
a. Larva; b, Butterfly ; c, Chrysalis. 

its own appropriate parasite (Pteromalus pupa7'iim), sl 
little greenish wasp-like insect, less than one-tenth of an 
inch in length, with four delicate transparent wings. 
These butterflies almost invariably deposit their eggs on 
the under surface of the leaves. They hibernate gen- 
erally in the chrysalis state, attaching themselves to 
fences, stems of bushes, etc. , in the vicinity. 

If boards were fixed in the cabbage field, about two 
inches above the ground, these worms would probably 
resort to them, but such methods to capture them and 
diminish their number, after the infliction of the dam- 



156 



TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 



age, particularly on a large scale, and without coopera- 
tion, would be impracticable. 

The Zebra Caterpillar (Mamestra picta,) is not suffi- 




Fig. 28. — SOUTHERN CABBAGE BUTTERFLY {FkHs PfOtodlCe). 
a, Larva ; b, Chrysalis. 

ciently numerous to do much harm. The Cabbage 
Pionea (P. rimosalis,) I have never found upon the 
cabbage. 

REMEDIES FOR CABBAGE-WORMS. 

The numerous deterrent remedies recommended as ef- 
fective against the cabbage-worms, although many may 




Fig. 29. — SOUTHERN CABBAGE BUTTERFLY — Female. 

be distasteful or offensive to them, are all comparatively 
worthless. This is owing partly to the impossibility of 
their being made to reach every part of the plant haunted 
by the insect, particularly the under surface of the leaf, 
and the interior of the head. Among the proposed 



CABBAGE. 



157 



remedies are: red pepper, soot, lime, ashes, salt, sulphur, 
solution of copperas, yeast, soap-suds, etc. Water heat- 
ed to one hundred and forty, or even to one hundred 
and sixty degrees, was at one time highly praised as an 
insecticide; but the same objection applies to it as to the 
others. Were it not hazardous to apply to the eatable por- 
tions of vegetables, like the cabbage, etc., poisons danger- 
ous to man, we would have an effective means in Paris 
green or London purple for the removal of these insects. 
The remedy for cabbage- worms, tested and recom- 




Fig. 30.— ZEBRA CATERPILLAR {Mamestra pidd). 
a. Larva ; 6, Moth. 

mended by our best authority on such matters. Prof. 
Riley, is Pyrethrum powder. This is also called *^ Dal- 
matian," or ^'Persian Insect Powder," and the name 
"California Buhach," is given to the fresher and there- 
fore more effective Oalifornian product. This is not a 
mere deterrent, rendering the part of the plant it touches 
obnoxious to the worm, but it acts as a poison by con- 
tact, convulsing and paralyzing the insect. AYhile this 
powder is very effective with some kinds of insects, it is 



158 TKUCK-FARMIXG AT THE SOUTH. 

comparatively harmless to others, and is more effective 
on young worms than on older ones of the same species. 
It is more fatal to the caterpillars of Pieris butterflies 
than to those of the Plusia moth. The powder does 
not always kill the worm, but merely so disables it that 
it falls to the ground, where it will readily become the 
prey of ants and other natural enemies. 

Pyre thrum seems to owe its virtues to a volatile oil, 
and its effects are not lasting in the open air. It may 
be used in the form of dry powder, mixed, if fresh, with 
from ten to twenty parts of flour, and blown by means 
of a bellows, or dusted upon the plant. It may also be 
used in the form of an alcoholic tincture, as a tea or de- 
coction, or even a mere solution or infusion in water, and 
applied by means of an atomizer or sprinkler. The 
fumes of burning Pyrethrum are applicable only in 
greenhouses or in dwelling rooms, which may be cleared 
of flies and mosquitoes by its use. 

PLANT-LICE. 

The astounding fecundity of plant-lice {Aphides), and 
their peculiar habit of attacking stunted plants, have 
already been mentioned. If the season be not too far 
advanced, or the plants too large, a badly infested cab- 
bage should be pulled up, removed from the field, and 
its place supplied by a clean and healthy one. 

The same valueless applications, with the addition of 
tobacco water and snuff (tobacco smoke in greenhouses), 
as in the case of the cabbage-worms, have been also 
recommended for plant- lice. Pyrethrum may be better 
than any other, but it would be useless to apply reme- 
dies to a large, badly infested cabbage, in the hope that 
it would ever become marketable. If of any effect, its ap- 
plication might destroy some plant-lice, but I have never 
carefully examined an infested plant without finding 
some of the natural enemies of the aphides at work 



CABBAGE. 159 

among them, and, if left alone, the lice would eventu- 
ally succumb. An effective application would probably 
destroy friend as well as foe. My only success in fighting 
plant-lice was by transferring the larvae of the lady-bird 
from less valuable ruta bagas to cauliflow^ers or cabbages. 
The best advice in the premises is: prepare the land 
thoroughly, manure it richly, and cultivate the crop fre- 
quently and carefully, thus securing such vigorous and 
luxuriant growth that the losses by cabbage-lice will be 
insignificant. 

i:n^sect et^emies of plant-lice. 

The insect enemies of the plant-lice are legion, else 
they would devour every green living thing upon the 
earth. Some of these enemies are enumerated below. 
One or two of the species of lady-birds may be confined 
to other plant-lice than the Aphis hrassiccB. The lady- 
birds, both in the perfect and larval state, feed upon 
little else than plant-lice. Of these there are: 

Fii'st. — The Nine-spotted Lady-bird {CoccineUa9-7wta- 
ta). Nearly round, brick-red, with nine black spots. 

Second. — The Two-spotted Lady-bird {Coccinella bi- 
pundatd). Similar to No. 1, smaller, with two black spots. 

Third. — The Spotted Lady-bird {Megilla mamdata). 
Imported from Europe. Pink, vdth large black spots. 

Fourth. — The Thirteen-spotted Lady-bird {Hippo- 
damia IS-ptmctata), Brick-red, with thirteen black spots. 

Fifth. — The Trim Lady-bird {Cyclo7ieda sangumea). 
It has no black spots. 

Sixth. — The Convergent Lady-bird {Hippodamia con- 
verge7is). Deep orange-red, marked with black and white. 

Seventh. — The Fifteen-spotted Mysia {Mysia 15- 
punctata). From light gray to chestnut-brown, with 
fifteen black spots. 

Eighth. — The Twice-stabbed Lady-bird (Chilocorus 
Hvulnerus). Highly polished black, with two red spots. 



160 



TRUCK-FAEMIJ^G AT THE SOUTH. 



Besides these, there are many less common kinds. 

Prominent among the enemies of the plant-lice are 
the larvae of the Golden-eyed and Lace-winged flies, 
called Aphis-lions. 

Other enemies are the larvae of Syrphus-flies, somewhat 
resembling a leech in shape. Besides being preyed upon 
by all these insects, the plant-lice are subject to several 
genera of tiny parasites included in the genus Aphidius. 




Fig. 31.— HARLEQUIN CABBAGE BUG {StracMa histrionica), 
a, Larva ; b. Pupa ; c, Eggs ; d, Perfect Bug. 

They have mostly black bodies, and are about one-twen- 
tieth of an inch in length. The little round, plump, 
smooth bodies in a colony of aphides, or remaining on 
the leaf of a plant after the removal of the colony by 
other enemies, are dead parasitized aphides containing the 
parasitic pupa of an ichneumon fly. 

The Harlequin-bug made its appearance in Georgia, 
from Mexico, about the commencement of Mr. Lincoln's 
first presidency, from which circumstances it received the 
local name of "Lincoln-bug," by which it is still known 
in Southern Georgia. In 1867 it had reached North 
Carolina. 

This insect winters in its perfect state, and the first 



CABBAGE. 



161 



that are seen in spring should always be destroyed. The 
larvae puncture and suck the leaves of the cabbage, giving 
them the appearance of being scorched. Strange to say, 
while this insect is on the increase, and the damage it 
inflicts considerable, no birds, or insect enemies seem to 
prey upon it. Probably, in good time, these will both 
present themselves for the feast, when its conspicuous 
black, yellow, and roddish colorings will render it an easy 
prey. Hand-picking in the egg, larva, and perfect state, 
is the only remedy yet known. 

Two of the true bugs are sometimes very destructive 
to the cabbages and turnips. The False Chinch-bug and 
the Tarnished Plant-bug. 

The Palse Chinch-bug (JVysuis clestr^ucto?'), much 
resembles the true Chinch-bug 
in general appearance, but that 
has a black head and thorax, 
and two conspicuous black 
sjDots on the front wings, 
while in this, the False-bug, 
the color is more uniform 
and of a paler tarnished brown. 
The two insects differ in their 
habits; while the Chinch-bug 
confines itself to the grains and grasses, this feeds 
on several garden plants and the grape. The engrav- 
ing fig. 32, gives the larva at b, and the perfect in- 
sect at c. This, like related insects, feeds by sucking the 
juices of plants by means of its beak, causing them to 
wilt. Like the Chinch-bug, it passes the winter under 
weeds and rubbish, and clean culture with the burning of 
all trash at the approach or winter, will aid in keeping 
it in subjection. 

The Tarnished Plant-bug (Capsus oUineatiis), fig. 
33, in its general color is dirty yellow, sometimes green- 
ish, with markings of dark brown or black. It is a more 




Fig, 33.— FALSE CHINCH-BUG 

(M/sius destricctor.) 
h. Pupa ; c, Mature Insect. 



162 



TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 




Fig. 33.— TARNISHED 
PLANT-BUG {CapsuS 

ohlineahis). 



general feeder than the preceding, and beside? plants 
in the vegetable and flower garden, it attacks vari- 
ons fruit trees, especially when these 
are young. The principal remedies 
thus far recommended are tobacco 
water and cresylic soap. The insect 
is very fond of the cabbage, especially 
v/hen it is in bloom, and it has been 
suggested to allow a patch of cabbages 
to run up to flower in order to attract 
the insects which can be more readily 
destroyed, when thuts assembled, than 
when scattered over a wide area. 
The Lady -birds or Lady-bugs, in 
their perfect state are well-known insects, and the brief 
description of the leading species here given will 
allow them to be recognized. The larval form, 
in which they are so useful is not so well 
known. The engraving fig. 34, gives their 
general appearance. The color is often blue, or 
lead color, with orange and black markings. 
They are remarkably active and run about with ^^34 
great rapidity, as they feed not only upon plant la.rva of 
lice but upon other insects. The one repre- {Hlppoda- 
sented in fig. 34, is the larva of Hippodamia'^'^''^^^''!'''- 
convergens, and has done good service in keep- 
ing the Colorado Potato-bug in check, by feeding upon 
its soft larvae. 




THE CAULIFLOWER. 163 



CHAPTER XVL 



THE CAULIFLOWER {Brassica oleracea var. Botrytis). 

Choiifleur, French; Blumenkohl, German; Blar.ikool, Dutch; Cavoli 
fiori, Italian ; and Berza fiorida, Spanish. 

The Cauliflower is the most curious, most delicate, and 
most yaluable member of the genus Brassica. The part 
used, called the *^ curd," consists of the undeveloped 
flower buds, with their stems, etc., forming, when not 
too much expanded, a firm, white, compact head. 

PROFITS PER ACRE. 

Of the various crops grown by the truck-farmer, this, 
when all the peculiar conditions for its successful culture 
are present, can be made the most profitable. Peter 
Henderson, in his valuable ''Gardening for Profit," as- 
sures us that his average proceeds from an acre, through 
several years, had been fifteen hundred dollars, and, that 
in one very favorable season, it reached nearly three 
thousand dollars (ten thousand to twelve thousand plants 
to the acre). Two years ago, tho New York '' Sun " re- 
ported as exceptionally high, the net sales of two barrels 
of cauliflower, in prime condition, from Cutchogue, L. 
I., at nineteen dollars each. Some of my own crop of 
last year, April 4th, 1882, brought, in the New York 
market, per bushel crate, containing an average of twenty- 
two heads of prime quality, but not very large, eight dol- 
lars and fifty cents gross, or seven dollars and sixty cents 
net. That portion of the crop shipped in crates to New 
York, averaged, for the first quality and ''culls," five 
dollars and sixty-five cents gross. The first, shipped 



164 TRUCK-FAKMIl^G AT THE SOUTH. 

in barrels, March 25th, containing forty-two No. 1, and 
forty-seven No. 2, netted twenty-four dollars and seventy- 
five cents per barrel. 

The average gross Gales per head of No. 1, in New 
York, wxre at thirty-seven and nine-tenths cents. The 
average gross sales per head of No. 1, in Boston, were at 
thirty-seven and five-tenths cents. The sales by another 
firm were not quite so satisfactory. 

What number of plants to the acre^ under favorable 
conditions, he may be able to nurse up to the production 
of marketable heads, will, of course, depend upon the 
gardener himself. 

The Cauliflower is considered the queen among vege- 
tables, and the supply has never been equal to the de- 
mand, though there are hundreds of acres devoted to it 
on Long Island, for the New York market. As seen 
from the prices quoted above, this vegetable is only within 
the command of persons of means. Fortunately for 
the market gardener, there are many who think as did 
Dr. Johnson: '^ Of all the flowers of the garden give me 
the cauliflower.^' 

Besides large quantities used for pickling, etc., there 
were marketed from Long Island, in 1879, one hundred 
thousand pounds of cauliflower. 

LOCATIOi^ AND SOIL. 

The cauliflower can never become a vegetable of uni- 
versal cultivation, for the reason, that it will not succeed 
if far removed from the moisture and the saline atmos- 
phere of its native locality, the sea coast, unless, in- 
deed, the required moisture can be supplied by irriga- 
tion. Erfurt, in the interior of Germany, produces per- 
haps the finest cauliflowers of the European Continent. 
They are grown between open ditches, or small canals, 
on ^^ lands " so narrow as to admit of water being thrown 
by hand from each marginal ditch to the middle of each 



THE CAULIFLOWEE. 1'65 

"land." In watering, a scoop attached to a somewhat 
elastic handle, is used, thus drenching the whole crop. 

The culture is often impracticable at only a short dis- 
tance from a favorable location. While the northern 
shore of Long Island is, par excellence, the cauli- 
flower garden of the United States; the southern 
shore is comparatively unfit for its growth. On the 
Peninsula of Florida, there must be many situations 
along either its west or east coast, where the soil being 
suitable, this vegetable may be grown with great success, 
and it is strange that the farmers of that State liave not 
yet made it one of the favorite vegetables for shipment. 
It ought to do well near Norfolk, but the farmers there 
consider it a troublesome crop. 

Owing to the heat and dryness prevailing during the 
season of ripening; the seed of cauliflower is rarely grown 
in this country, but is imported from Europe. One 
American variety, the " Snow Ball," has lately been highly 
recommended. I do not yet know it sufficiently to either 
condemn or praise it; but what little I have seen, leads 
me to consider it a small leaved ^^ Dwarf Erfurt," from 
American grown seed. 

It is necessary, even in a greater degree than with the 
common cabbage, to secure seed of good strain. Though 
all the other elements of success may be present, with 
seed of poor quality, failure is certain. Instead of the 
beautiful, snow white '^^curd," more like a flower in its 
delicate beauty than an edible vegetable, the green leaves 
push their way through the loose, deformed head, or the 
plant grows up into a stalk without heading, being per- 
fectly unmarketable, and only fit for cattle feed. 

VAKIETIES. 

As in the case of cabbage, a crop of cauliflower may be 
grown for winter, and one for heading in spring, and, as 
with cabbage, success with the winter crop is most uncer- 



166 



TRUCK-FARMIKG AT THE SOUTH. 



tain. Different varieties are adapted to each season. 
While resistance to the effects of cold is the chief requisite 
of the first, ability to withstand the heat is a necessity for 
the spring crop. The '^Algiers/' the variety grown so 
extensively in the French African colony for the winter 
supply of Europe (whence its name), is a good sort for 
the winter crop. It makes an enormous plant, and forms 
a large, massive, fine white head. The seed is sown, like 
that of cabbages, from May to September; but, owing to 
the greater susceptibility of cauliflower to heat, it is even 




w CM-! 

Fig. 85.— LENORMAND CAULIFLOWEE. 

more difficult to grow the plants. Another drawback in 
this latitude is the liability to have the crop killed out 
by freezing about the time it commences to mature. An 
amount of cold several degrees above that injurious to 
cabbage will kill cauliflow^er plants outright. 

The distance apart for the Algiers and other bulky va- 
rieties is two by four feet. This variety is recommended 
to Florida growers for a winter crop, to be marketed m 
February, the seeds being sown early in September. For the 



THE CAULIFLOWER. 167 

main, or shipping, spring crop, the early dwarf yarieties, 
which may be expected to mature before May, that is, 
before the weather becomes dry and hot^ are the kinds to 
be selected. The ' ' Very Early Dwarf Erfurt," the "Short- 
stemmed Lenormand," and "Early Paris," in the order 
named, are the choice varieties. 

The plants should, like cabbage and other plants, be 
put out dripping wet, about, or soon after, the first of 
January, so as to escape the severest cold, which, in the 
latitude of Savannah, may generally be looked for in the 
latter part of December. The seed should therefore be 
sown under glass in cold frames, from November 15th to 
December 1st. In Florida, of course, it may be sown 
earlier, and the plants be put out sooner, as there is little 
danger to be anticipated from winter killing. 

cultivatio:n'. 

The varieties are of such dwarfish habit (particularly 
is this so with the Erfurt), that it is not advisable to sow 
earlier in the open air, and to prick out under glass. 
When of a sufficient age to " curd," if growth is retarded, 
they may in the seed-bed form heads no larger than mar- 
bles. It is, therefore, important with this vegetable, that 
the plants suffer no hindrance or stunting in growth, but 
be pushed forward from the start, without-, however, al- 
lowing them to become spindling or too delicate. From 
eighteen to twenty-one inches in the rows, and these 
three and a half feet apart (seven thousand one hundred 
and eleven to eight thousand two hundred and ninety- 
seven plants to the acre) is sufficient distance for the 
early varieties. The manure, the depth and kind of 
preparation of the soil, and the cultivation of the cauli- 
flower, are identical with that of cabbage, with the only 
difference, that the former perhaps requires a little more 
care, and will certainly reward extra attention. 



168 TRUCK-FARMIKG AT THE SOUTH. 

PROTECTIN'G. 

Bright sunshine tans or tarnishes the snowy whiteness 
of the " curd," deteriorating its quahty. As soon, there- 
fore, as the head commences to be yisible, it should be 
protected from the light, either by tying up all the large 
leaves orer the head, or by pinning two of them together 
by a little stick. Protection is given more expeditiously 
and the light excluded by using one of the larger leaves, 
torn from the plant to cover the ^' curd " closely, tucking it 
between the head and surrounding leaves. If there are 
any caterpillars of the cabbage-butterfly on the plant, 
they are likely to be found on the lower surfaces of the 
covering. When the cutting of the crop has been com- 
menced, leaves for covering are to be taken from plants 
already cut. If the protecting leaf has been carefully 
adjusted, the operation need rarely be done more than 
once, as the heads mature three or four days after they 
become jDlainly visible. The several lobes forming the 
head should not be allowed to separate, or the head to 
become loose and expanded, before cutting for market; 
solidity being one of the requisites of good quality. 

CUTTIKG AND PACKING. 

When the *^curd" is mature, the leaves will be seen to 
spread out. The proper instrument for cutting is a 
strong sharp knife, or small hatchet. A couple only of 
the larger leaves are left, which are folded over the head 
for protection against bruising in the packages. Heads 
less than four inches in diameter, those tanned by the 
sun, or of an ^' off color " from any other cause, or blem- 
ished by crickets, cut-worms, or cabbage-worms, or too 
much expanded, should be classed as culls, and packed 
separately. If Avhite and compact, a small size is less 
objectionable than bad appearance. Each '^ curd," at least 
of the first quality, should be covered by a i:)iece of 



THE CUCUMBER. 169 

smooth, soft, but tongh white paper, which will admit of 
being tucked between the head and the leaves without 
tearing. The heads should be packed evenly and snugly 
in layers in barrels or crates, as the case may be. Each 
layer may be separated from the other by a piece of brown 
paper; if a barrel is used, the package should be thor- 
oughly ventilated. During cool weather, cauliflower 
may be safely shipped in barrels or barrel crates; but as 
soon as the weather becomes warm, the usual bushel 
crate is better, as affording a smaller mass of material to 
engender heat. In New York and Philadelphia, cauli- 
flower is sold by the package, and in Boston by the 
dozen. 

INSECTS. 

Insects infest the cauliflower and cabbage alike, and 
the remedies are the same in each case. 



CHAPTER XVIL 



THE CUCUMBER {Cucumis satimis.) 

Coucomhre, French; Ourke, German; Komkommer, Dutch; Citnnolo, 
Italian ; Pepino or Cohomhro, Spanish. 

The Cucumber is one of the earliest known vegetables. 
Moses mentions it as abundant in Egypt. ^^ We remem- 
ber the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cu- 
cumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, 
and the garlic." — Numbers xi:5. 

A native of the East Indies, it was introduced into 
England in 1573. By means of thin plates of talc or 
mica {sjjecularia — plates of lapis specularis), Pliny tells 
8 



170 TRUCK-FAKMING AT THE SOUTH. 

US, the Roman emperor Tiberius, who was fond of cucum- 
bers, had them throughout the year. The forcing con- 
sisted in growing the cucumbers in boxes or baskets of 
earth, protected in cold weather by these plates. The 
cucumber is a vegetable that is very easily grown, and 
is so productive when properly manured and cultivat- 
ed; it is so universally popular at the North, and is 
consumed so largely, that when the season permits the 
marketing of the greater part of the produce, it is one of 
the best paying crops. One of the drawbacks of truck- 
farming is, that whether the entire product of a crop is 
harvested or not, as soon as the same vegetable matures 
at a point farther North, it comes into market iu a condi- 
tion fresher and more acceptable to the trade, and, there- 
fore, excludes from profitable sale all shipments of the 
article from the more southern and distant points. Thus, 
when the Savannah cucumbers are in, those from Flor- 
ida will be thrust out of the market; and the same fate 
awaits those from Georgia, as soon as the Norfolk crop 
matures. The season of 1882 was a fortunate one for the 
Savannah growers, nearly the entire yield of cucumbers 
havinof been marketed. While from two hundred to 
three hundred crates may be considered a fair crop; one 
farmer gathered one thousand three hundred and fifty 
crates from about an acre and a half, or nine hundred 
crates per acre, on very richly manured ground. 

VARIETIES. 

The only variety grown for shipment is the " Improved 
White Spine." In cucumber cultivation, seeds of home 
growth may be used. Seeds of more than one year old 
will be more productive, and run less to vine, than fresh 
seeds. They may be sown in the vicinity of Savannah ac- 
cording to season, about March 1st to the 15th, and 
earlier or later, respectively, south or north of that lati- 



THE CUCUMBER. 171 

tude. In the middle of Florida, it may be safe to plant 
any time in January, 

SOIL AJ^D SOWII^G. 

The land best adapted to the cucumber is a moist, 
warm, light, sandy loam; although sandy soil is not so 
productive, the finest and earliest cucumbers may be 
grown on it if highly and properly fertilized. A manure 
rich in nitrogen will produce fruit of the de- 
sirable dark-green color. The usual method 
of planting cucumbers is in hills, either four 
or five, or even six feet aj)art each way, ac- 
cording to the nature and fertility of the soil. 
The land being properly ploAved and har- 
rowed, furrows are run by the plow, crossing 
each other at right angles. At each crossing 
one or two shovelfuls of good stable manure, 
or compost, or failing these, an equivalent 
quantity of any other good fertilizer is inti- 
mately mixed with the soil, and a hill, flat on Fi^!^ 
top, and a little elevated above the general ^^ite-spine 
surface, is made with the hoe. In a furrow 
one-half to one inch deep, made by the hand across 
the middle of the hill, sow from ten to fifteen seeds. 
A week later, whether any of the seeds first planted 
are up or not, a second sowing is made, at a sufiicient 
distance from the first to avoid disturbing it, and 
always on the same side of it. A week later still, a third 
sowing may be made on the other side of the first. Should 
a frost kill the growing plants of the first seeding, before 
those of the second are up, plants from the second may 
be made available for the crop. The same rule applies to 
the last sowing. 

CULTIVATION. 

When probability of frost has passed, and the plants 
are sufficiently large, they are to be thinned to two or 




172 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 

three in the hill. If the seed comes up well, and the 
plants are crowding each other, another partial thinning 
may he necessary. I prefer to manure, as for cahbage, 
in the furrow, and to drill in the seed on beds six feet 
apart, and to thin so as to leave the plants finally about 
twelve inches apart in the row; leaving single plants, 
three sowings being made as before. At the first thin- 
ning, the soil should be drawn by the hoe to the stems 
up to the seed leaves. The earth is to be kept loose and 
clean between the rows by plow and cultivator, and be- 
tween the plants by the hoe, until the vines have taken 
possession of the ground. If the plant is stopped when it 
has two rough leaves beyond the second, that is, if the 
end of the vine is pinched off, lateral fruiting branches 
will be emitted, which will be early in bearing and more 
productive than the main vine. This operation of stop- 
ping is rarely practised in extensive planting. 

GATHERIl^G A:^D PACKING. 

If the fruits are cut instead of being pulled off, there 
will be no injury to the vine; nor will the cucumber wilt 
so rapidly. A transverse section of the fruit should bo 
nearly round, before the cucumber is picked; but quite 
green and perfect in shape. None of imperfect form, 
short, round and contracted at the flower end, or with 
the slightest tendency to turn yellow, or large and over- 
grown, should be shipped, as they will affect the market 
value of the whole package. The cucumbers should be 
carefully laid in the crates, or be well shaken down, as 
directed in the chapter on ^^ Packing," and the crate be 
over-full when nailed uj) 

SEED SAVING. 

The White-spined cucumber becomes white instead of 
yellow, when ripe. The whitest, largest and longest 
should be selected for seed. Cut them leno^thwise into 



THE CUCUMBER. 



173 



halves, and take out the seeds and inner pulp by hand, 
droj^ping them into a barrel or pail. The mass should 
be Gtirred daily and allowed to remain four or five days, 
to enable fermentation to remove the gelatinous matter 
which surrounds the seeds. These are then washed out 
in several waters, thoroughly dried, and stored away in 



bags. 



INSECTS. 



The insects which infest the cucumber are: 

First. — The Cucumber Flea-beetle {Haltica cucumeris). 

Second. — The Striped Cucumber-beetle {Diahrotina 
vittata). 

Third. — The Twelve-spotted Squash-beetle or Striped- 
bug {Diabrotica 1%-punctata). 

Fourth. — The Pickle-worm {Phacellura nitidalis). 

Fifth. — The Grass-worm {Laplirygma frugiperda). 

The little flea-beetle, like its kindred on the cabbage 




rig. 37. 

CUCUMBER 
FLEA-BEETLE 

{Haltica cu- 
cimieris.} 




Fig. 88.— STRIPED 
CUCUMBER-BEETLE 

(Diabrotica vittata. ) 



Back, Side. 

Fig. 39. — LARVA OF STRIPED 
C UC UMBEK-BEETLE. 



and other plants, may be driven off by freshly-slaked 
lime or soot. 
The Striped-bug appears early in the spring as a com- 



174 



TRUCK-FARMIKG AT THE SOUTH. 



plete insect, destroying the yonng leaves. If numerous, 
these insects may be poisoned by Paris green, one part to 
ten of flour, before they can deposit their eggs for a new 
brood, of which there are three at the 
South. After hatching from the egg, the 
duration of its larval existence is about 
four weeks, during which time its injury 
Fig. 40. to the roots of plants, by boring into them, 
TWELVE-SPOTTED jq^v bc considcrablc. The past season, 

SQUASH-BEETLE ^ , , t , i i 

{Diahrotka 13- an inscct was reported to have been very 
punctata.) destructive to cucumber vines near Savan- 
nah, by injuring the roots. Frnni the description it 
must have been the larva of the DiabroUca, or it may 





Fig. 41. — p.XJKLE-wOitM {PhaeeUui'a nMldaUs). 

have been the true wire-worm — the larva of small snap- 
ping beetles; but most probably the former. It has been 

said in a recent work, '^Of all 
the multifarious remedies pro- 
posed against the attacks of this 
insect, there is none so effectual, 
or so cheap in the end, as in- 
closing the young vines in boxes, 
which are open at the bottom, 
and covered with millinet on the 
top. Such boxes are made at a 
trivial cost, and if properly stored away each season after 
use, will last for many years." 

The private gentlemau, having half a dozen cucumber 
vines in his garden, may avail himself of such a 




Fig. 42,— MOTH OF PICKLE- 
WORM. 



THE egg-pla:nt. 



175 



remedy, but tlie farmer, who fails to protect his crop by 
destroying the first insects by poison, in case of their 
visitation in devastating numbers, and to whom the 
alternative is offered, would probably give up the cucum- 
ber to Diabrotica, and betake himself to another crop, 
rather than use from forty thousand to eighty thousand 
boxes for the protection of from six to twelve acres. 
The third of the beetles infesting the cucumber, the 




Fig. 43. — GRASS-WORM 

(Laphrygma frugiperda.) Fig. 44, — larva of grass-wokm. 

twelve-spotted Diabrotica is not so destructive as the 
former species. 

The cucumber is the regular food plant of the Pickle- 
worm {Phacellura nitidalis) while the more omnivorous 
Grass-worm {Laphrygma frugiperda) only occasionally 
feeds upon it. Both these lepidopterous insects become 
numerous too late in the season to affect the crop of the 
truck-farmer seriously. 



CHAPTER XVIIL 



THE EGG-PLANT, OR "GUINEA CQUASH." 

{Solanum melongena.) 

Aubergine, Frencli ; Elerpflanze, German ; and 31elanzana, Italian. 

The Egg-plant is of tropical origin, and was introduced 
into England from Africa in 1597. It derives its common 
name from a small white variety which is similar in shape 
and appearance to the egg of a goose. 



17G 



TRUCK-rARMIi]q"G AT THE SOUTH. 



Only a very few years since, the demand for egg-plants 
(as the fruit is called), was so limited in the l^evf York 
market, that but a fev/ could be sold, and it did not pay 
to 23lant a crop for shipment. This was probably in part 
owing to the fact, that the cultivation of this plant at 
the North is attended with trouble, in consequence of 
its tenderness, and a successful crop is doubtful. Lat- 
terly a more general taste for the vegetable seems to have 

been developed, and its 
consumption has greatly 
increased. As late as July 
8th, last (and egg-plant 
had been in the Savan- 
nah market from Florida 
since Jp.nuary), a ship- 
ment of my own, averag- 
ing about sixty-five fruits 
to the barrel, sold in the 
New York market at six 
dollars per barrel. The 
farmers of the southern 
part of Florida, from 
Tam23a to Key West, be- 
ing exempt from frost, 
may produce such tropi- 
cal vegetables at will, as far as season is concerned. 
On Dec. let of last year, egg-plants and tomatoes 
were mature at Clear Water. The only variety cultivated 
for market is the '^^New York Purple Improved." This 
being a tropical fruit, or berry, it must reach its greatest 
development and mature its seed most perfectly at the 
South, for which reason it is not only possible, but ad- 
visable to use seed of home growth in preference to that 
produced at the North. 

The seed and young plants require more of a tropical 
heat (65° to 70°) for their germination and continued 




Fig. 45. — ^EGG-PLANT — "NEW YORK 
PURPLE IMPROVED." 



THE EGG-PLAKT. 177 

healthy growth, than any other crop, and should, there- 
fore, be sown by themselves under glass in cold frames. 
After sowing, the bed should be well watered and the 
glass placed on, and not removed until the seed is up. 
In case of hot sunshine before germination, the sash 
should be partially shaded. If it is contemplated to 
prick out the plants into other frames, the sowing may 
be as early as the middle of January; otherwise ten or 
fifteen days later. The management while under glass 
is about the same as with other tender plants, with the 
exception that they require more careful exclusion of 
cold air, and have more frequent protection from slight 
variations of temperature by the glass, than the tomato, 
pepper, etc. , and they will bear a greater degree of heat 
without being drawn. No vegetable Avith which I am 
acquainted, can withstand drouth better than the egg- 
plant, which bears and matures its fruit under a degree of 
heat and dryness that would be fatal to other crops. If 
there be a sufficiency of decayed vegetable matter in the 
soil, this crop may be allotted to the sandiest part of the 
farm. If planted in low, altogether thoroughly drained, 
land, the plants are apt to die off about the time they 
commence to bloom or bear, a peculiarity more or less 
common to all the Solanum family. To mature early 
fruit of the size and quality required by the trade, a 
shovelful or two of fermented stable manure, or compost, 
should be mixed in each hill. The hills should be two and 
a half by four feet apart. The cultivation is about the 
same as that of any other hill crop. The earth should be 
slightly drawn to the stems during the hoeing, not suf- 
ficiently, however, to touch any of the lower branches. 
The plow and horse-hoe, once each, run between the rows, 
and two hoeings should be sufficient for the crop in light 
unbaked land. 

To cut through the tough stems, without disturbing 
the plants, a thin-bladed, sharp knife, or a pair of nippers 



178 TRUCK-FAKMIKG AT THE SOUTH. 

is necessary. To be marketable at good ]3rices, the fruit 
should be well grown, weighing from one to three pounds 
but not old, nor light colored and tough; small ones 
are not readily salable. They are to be carefully handled 
to avoid bruising and injuring the gloss. Shorten the 
stems to about half an inch and wrap each in paper. It 
is then to be firmly and evenly packed in crates, or in 
well ventilated double-headed barrels. The Flea-beetle 
frequently attacks the plants when young, for which the 
usual remedy of lime or soot is applicable, but rarely 
necessary. 

The large green Tomato- worm is sometimes found on 
the egg-plant. Should these, the Tortoise-beetle {Cassi- 
da Texana) or the false Colorado-beetle [Doryphora junc- 
ta), already mentioned, ever become destructive, Paris 
green might be applied before the fruit, or berry, is 

formed. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



KALE, BORECOLE, OR SPROUTS (Brassica oleracea—yar. 

sdbellica.) 

Chouvert, Freuch ; Krauskohl or Br junkohl, German; Bxrenkool, Dutch; 
Cavolo aperto, Italian; Col, Spanish. 

Kale is a variety of the cabbage of great excellence for 
the table. It is distinguished from the other varieties 
by its open growth and its more or less curled or 
wrinkled leaves. It is the most hardy of all, and with- 
stands a severe degree of cold; indeed, it is not consid- 
ered to have reached the perfection of flavor and tender- 
ness, until it has been frozen. 

Among the many varieties of kale some are dwarfish 
in habit, while others grow from four to five feet high. 



KALE^ BORECOLE^ OR SPROUTS. 



179 



Kale is rarely grown at the extreme Soutli for the 
J^orthern markets, its extensive cultivation beinsr con- 
fined to Norfolk, Va. The price in the New York 
market rarely exceeds two dollars and twenty-five cents 
per barrel. The varieties cultivated are: a local one, 
called the ^^Blue Curled," and the "'^Greeu Curled 
Scotch;" the former by far the most extensively. 

The preparation and character of the soil, quantity 
and kind of manure, and 
the cultivation of the crop 
must be similar to that of 
the other varieties of cab- 
bage. The ^'' Blue Curled" 
is sown from August 10th 
to September 15th, at Nor- 
folk, in drills thirty inches 
apart, at the rate of a 
pound and a half of seed 
to the acre; the plants are 
eventually thinned to a 
stand of from four to eight 
inches in the row. The 
^SScotch Curled," to a 
much smaller extent, is 
sown in seed-beds early in 
August, and transplanted 
in September from eight to ten inches apart in the row. 

The crop is cut for shipment in March. The size of 
the plants, when cut, varies from six inches to two feet 
across, and, therefore, the number which will fill a barrel 
varies greatly. It must be very firmly packed in well- 
ventilated barrels, as with the best care, it will shrink in 
consequence of its loose growth. It is subject to the 
same insects as the cabbage, and, sown as it is in the 
open field in the fall, is affected by the young cut-worms. 
See chapter on ^/Insects." 




Fio:. 



:o. — SALE. 



180 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 



CHAPTER XX. 



LETTUCE {Lactiica sativa). 

Laitue, French ; Garten-salat, German ; Latuw^ Dutch ; Latttiga, Italian ; 

Lechvga, Spanish. 

The Lettuce is a hardy annual which was first culti- 
vated in England in 1562, but whence it was introduced 
is not known. 

Owing to its freedom from insect depredations (exclu- 
sive of the cut-worm), its large consumption, and the 
ease with which it can be grown, lettuce is one of the 
most important crops of the Northern farm-gardener, 
notwithstanding the fact, that, of late years, it has be- 
come subject to a disease. In New York, the winter and 
very early spring markets are supplied from hot-beds, in 
which it is grown in and near Boston, Avhere a specialty 
is made of this vegetable. Li consequence of this ex- 
tensive supply of superior and fresh stock, the more 
wilted condition of shipments from the South renders 
the cultivation of it here unprofitable. It is grown, how- 
ever, to a considerable extent at Norfolk. 

A good sort should form a solid and large head. The 
varieties used at Norfolk are: " White Cabbage " and the 
'^Boston Market," or " Tennis Ball," the former for open 
field culture, and the latter under glass. 

The seed is sown under glass in September, the plants 
put five or six inches apart, and the crop is ready for 
market in February and March. 

The trouble with this crop is the liability of the plants 
to damp oif under glass. 

For the open field, the seed is sown about the middle 
of September in a bed, and not quite as deep as cabbage 
seeds, the plants are transferred to flat beds, setting them 



THE ONION. 181 

about nine inches apart each way, to be cultivated en- 
tirely by the hoe, or in rows eighteen inches apart, the 
plants standing eight inches in the row, which will ad- 
mit the use of a narrow cultivator between the rows. 

This crop is marketable in April. 

Any well-drained soil, made fine and mellow, and well 
manured will produce good lettuce. 

After cleaning, or trimming the heads of soiled, or 
discolored leaves, they iire firmly packed for shipment in 
crates, barrels being imfit for this crop. 



CHAPTER XXL 



THE ONION {Allium Cepa). 

Ogmm, French ; Zioiebel, German ; Vie, Dutch ; Cipolla, Italian ; CehoUa, 
Spanish ; Alho, Portuguese. 

The alliaceous esculents are of great antiquity and of 
universal cultivation in every civilized country, some na- 
tionalities preferring one variety, and others a different 
one. The same genus includes the Leek {Allium Porrum), 
the Chives {A. ScJiOsnoprasum), the Garlic {A. sativum), 
the Shallot {A. Ascalonicum), and the Rocambole {A. 
Scorodoprasum). The onion (Allium Cejm) is the only 
species with which the truck-farmer has any concern. 
There are many varieties of the onion, only a few of 
which are grown for the ]N"orthern markets. 

ANALYSIS. 

According to Prof. C. A. Goessman, a crop of four 
hundred and forty-two bushels contained: 



182 TRUCK-FAKMING AT THE SOUTH. 

Potassium oxide 33.51 lbs. 

Sodium oxide 1.90 " 

Magnesium oxide 3.60 " 

Calcium oxide 8.20 " 

Sesqui-oxide of iron 0.58 " 

Silicic acid 3.33 " 

Phosphoric acid 15.80 " 

Sulphuric acid 29.81 " 

Nitrogen 48.63 " 

The peculiar characteristic odor is due to a yolatile or- 
ganic compound containing sulphur. 

Onions are used medicinally as stimulants, diuretics, 
and anthelmintics (worm medicines). Boiled or roasted, 
they form emollient poultices. The fresh root irritates 
or reddens the skin, and the expressed juice is sometimes 
used in ear-ache and in rheumatism. 

It has generally been held, but erroneously, that the 
onion could not be successfully grown from the seed, at 
the South, and that, below about the fortieth degree, the 
dry heat of our summers would dwarf the bulbs. Egypt 
and the Barbary States produce, perhaps, the finest 
onions in the world, several of the largest varieties having 
originated in Tripoli. Large quantities are annually 
exported from Portugal and Spain. The opinion pre- 
vails in Germany that the seed, at least of some varieties, 
will deteriorate, unless of southern growth; and those 
of the Madeira onion, used in Bermuda for the crop so 
popular in our Northern markets, are grown in the 
south of France. I have grown most varieties of the 
onion successfully for the past twenty-two years, having 
produced, one season, the '^^ Giant Rocca" at the rate of 
ten hundred and fifty bushels per acre. The usual yield 
is from three hundred to eight hundred bushels. At no 
time of the year are the Northern markets entirely bare 
of this indispensable A^ege table, some variety in its green 
or matured state being procurable. 

The aim of the Southern grower should be to slip his 
crop into the market at a time when the supply from 
other sections is most deficient. The first matured bulbs 



THE OKIOK. 



183 



in the spring found in the Northern markets are the Ber- 
muda grown " Madeira " onions. Although it might be 
possible to grow as fine onions in Florida from autumn- 
sown seed, the attempt to compete with Bermuda onions 
for faYor would seem 
fruitless at present. South 
Florida might even antici- 
pate the Bermuda crop. 
The next onions, other 
than from this section and 
from Florida, offered in 
market, are the '' Potato 
onions," grown near Nor- 
folk and in Maryland. 
Southern onions will be 
apt to bring the most sat- 
isfactory prices about the 
time the supply from 
Bermuda is becoming ex- 
hausted, which occurs 
about June 15th. While 
no variety of Southern- 

. -11 1 Fiff. 47.— OPTION— '' GIA.NT EOCCA." 

grown onions will keep ^ 

during the winter, should they ripen a little premature- 
ly, they may be preserved sufficiently long to allow the 
shipments to be so timed as to meet this demand, 

VARIETIES AXD SEED. 

Of more than one hundred varieties, the common 
^^Ked Wethersfield" and ^^ Yellow Danvers" are the best 
keepers. The beautiful white "Italian Queen" is the 
earliest and surest, but is too small. The " Giant Rocca " 
makes an enormous yield, but is too large for market. 
The now popular "Globe Madeira" will be the best to 
succeed the Bermuda crop of the same variety. 

Of no other vegetable, save the cauliflower, is it so im^ 




184 TRUCK-FARMIKG AT THE SOUTH. 

portant to liavc a good strain of seed. If saved from bulbs 
of objectionable form, or imperfect dcA^elopment, seal- 
lions, instead of the desirable globular onions, will be^ 
the result. ! 

No seed older than of the previous crop should be used, j 
as it rarely retains vitality over one year; it is also well 
to put it to the preliminary test recommended in the 
chapter on " Seeds," in order to gauge the drill in accord- 
ance with the percentage of sound seed. It will germi- 
nate in three or four days, if kept warm and moist. The 
seed is frequently soaked from one to four days, bat I 
cannot recommend the practice. If it is found to be of 
fair quality, to be perfectly reliable, the drill may be 
gauged to drop a seed every quarter to half an inch, at 
which rate it will require from three to four pounds to 
the acre. If sown too thickly, great labor is required to 
thin the plants, as it must be done early enough in their 
growth to prevent injury by crowding, and to avoid 
breaking the roots of those to be left. 

SOIL AND SOWING. 

Onions may be sown at any time in the fall, the weather 
being favorable, but there is nothing to be gained by 
such very early planting. In the latitude of Savannah, 
and northward, the young plants o£ October or Novem- 
ber sowing may be exposed to injury from heavy rains, 
or, notwithstanding the very hardy nature of the onion, 
from severe freezing in December. The crop from seed 
sown about January 1st escapes these dangers, comes in 
early enough for the better demand, and, growing through 
a shorter and warmer period, will require less extended 
care. 

The onion is intolerant of the vicinity of trees, and 
requires an open exposure. 

The soil best adapted to this crop is a deep, rich, fria- 
ble warm mould, full of vegetable matter, such as is fre- 



THE ONIOX. 185 

quently found in river bottoms and drained ponds. On 
heavy land, the bulbs are apt to remain small, and ac- 
quire a greater pungency of taste. If the soil is loamy, 
sand should be the predominating constituent. Land 
recently cleared, and therefore free from grass and weed- 
seed, provided it is made perfectly mellow, is always to 
be preferred to old land, particularly unless the latter 
has been kept clean of weeds and grass, in order that 
none of their seeds may have been self-sown for several suc- 
cessive years. Although the onion is a very shallow-rooted 
plant, it delights in a well-drained, deeply-stirred, and 
finely-pulverized soil. No plant requires a more care- 
ful preparation of the land, and a proper piece, once se- 
lected for this crop (it being an anomaly in regard to 
rotation), it should always remain appropriated to the 
same purpose; for, with proper and efficient manure and 
management, the crop may be increased in quantity each 
successive year. The land should be allowed to mature 
no second crop. As soon as the onions are removed, it 
should be sown down to cow peas. If recently cleared 
land is selected, it should also be sown with peas in July 
or August. They will not only keep down the weeds, 
and tend to mellow the soil by the decaying mass of vege- 
table matter, but maintain and increase the fertility of 
the soil. 

The first of December is early enough to plow under 
the dead pea vines, which should be deeply buried. 

The analysis shows that the onion requires a rich 
nitrogenous manure, and that it also contains much pot- 
ash and phosphoric acid. The manure of the hog is gen- 
erally considered the best for this crop. If stable manure 
is used, it should not be coarse enough to prevent its be- 
ing plowed under shallow. There is no objection to fine, 
green stable manure, provided it contains no seeds of 
weeds. If the animals have been fed on hay, the manure 
must be thoroughly fermented to destroy the vitality of 



18G TRUCK-FAEMIXG AT THE SOUTH. 

the grass seed. The onion is a gross feeder, and, with- 
out adequate manuring, there will be no satisfactory 
crop. The plants will not form bulbs properly if j^oorly 
fed. The yield will be in proportion to the quantity and 
quality of the manure. Thirty loads, of thirty bushels 
each, sufficiently compressed, or fermented, to weigh forty 
pounds to the bushel, is not a heavy application. Twenty- 
five loads of night-soil would do as well. If other fertil- 
izers, such as bone-meal (which is excellent), or guano, are 
used, they should be harrowed in so as to permit the 
roots of the young plants to reach them. A top-dress- 
ing of a hundred bushels of ashes per acre is beneficial. 

After sev^eral years of manuring with stable manure, a 
change to a half ton of bone-flour, ammoniated super- 
phosphate, guano, or five hundred pounds of sulphate of 
ammonia would be advisable. If the land is new, or 
loamy, a cross plowing and double harrowing may be 
necessary to put it in proper trim to receive the manure. 
It should be level, lest heavy rains may wash out the 
seed on the higher points, and cover the plants in lower 
ones too deeply. At the South, where we are visited by 
heavy rains, onions, on a small scale, are best planted on 
four-feet-wide ^Mazy beds," the intervening paths acting 
as auxiliary drains. The seed may be sown upon these beds 
by hand, in drills half an inch deep, twelve inches apart, 
across the bed. On a larger scale, where machines must be 
used, making two drills at a time, the sowing had better 
be done on narrow lands, fifteen or twenty feet wide, the 
rows running lengthwise, twelve or fifteen inches apart. 
Beds, or narrow lands, are formed in plowing under the 
manure, previously applied broadcast, as shallow as pos- 
sible, and, if the furrows intervening between the lands 
are too shallow to act as drains, the loose soil is to be 
thrown out upon the beds with hoes or shovels. The 
surface must be thoroughly fined with harrow and hand- 
rake. In fair weather, the seed will be up in two weeks. 



THE OKIOK. 187 

CULTIVATION. 

The only sure road to success in onion culture, even 
when all other conditions are favorable, is clean cultiva- 
tion, and as soon as the lines of young plants are dis- 
tinguishable, hoeing should be commenced, and repeated, 
with hand-weeding, whenever necessary, no weed being 
allowed to grow large enough to disturb the roots of the 
onion, when pulling it, and be continued to within about 
a month from the time the croj^ matures. The soil 
should be stirred between the plants in the row. 

The chief objection to this crop is the amount of care- 
ful labor required to keep it clean, at least four or five 
hoeings being necessary, for which the scuffle, push, or 
Dutch hoe is the best implement. 

Onions grow best upon the surface, as their roots do 
not penetrate the soil deeply; therefore, the hoeing must 
be superficial, and no soil should be drawn to the rows. 
They should be thinned to four inches in the row, if only 
large bulbs are wanted, but in case a large yield is de- 
sired, irrespective of size, the stand may be closer. 
Transplanted onions take root very readily; therefore, any 
yacant spaces may be supplied, or new beds made with 
the plants removed in thinning, cutting back the roots 
to about an inch, and the leaves one-half their length. 
The roots should be put down straight, and the plants 
deeper than they grew originally. If onions have room 
laterally, groups of four or five may be left together, be- 
cause in their efforts for survival, they will joush one 
another sidewise, and mount on top of each other, and 
still form round, marketable bulbs. 

HARYESTIis'a AI^D MARKETIiq^G. 

At the North, where the onions are to be stored for 
winter use, the whole crop is pulled when three-fourths 
of the plants have turned yellow, shrivelled and dried in 



188 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOL^TH. 

the neck sufficiently to topple over. At this time, some 
of the roots are dead, and have lost their hold upon the 
soil. The onions are allowed to remain spread upon the 
ground for two or three weeks to dry, before being housed. 
They are in fit condition for storing, when no moist- 
ure is visible upon strongly twisting the necks. Here, 
the crop being wanted for an early market and immediate 
use, the onions are pulled, as they successively indicate ma- 
turity by toppling over, and are left on the ground a day 
or two, or they are removed at once, and the necks cut off 
with a sharp knife, an inch or so from the bulb, when 
they are carefully packed in bushel crates and shipped. 

A vegetable, not a luxury, and rarely, if ever, out of 
market, cannot be expected to bring high prices. Onions 
range between one dollar and two dollars and fifty cents 
per bushel crate. In our local market they brought last 
June from two dollars and twenty-five cents to two dol- 
lars and seventy-five cents per bushel crate. 

A globular-shaped onion will produce a crop one-third 
larger than one that is flat in form. 

RAISING ONION SEED. 

If properly matured, and carefully preserved. South- 
ern-grown seed is as good as any. The onion being a 
biennial plant, it produces seed the second season. The 
bulbs from which it is contemplated to save the seed 
should be selected, choosing those which combine the 
distinguishing peculiarities of the variety, in order that 
the seed may remain true. If planted in the fall, the 
seed will be ripe the following July or August. The soil 
should not be as rich as for the crop of bulbs, lest the 
flowers may blight and form no seed. The rows should 
be about eighteen inches apart, and the entire bulbs 
pressed mto the soil below the surface, about eight inches 
apart in the row. The seed stalks of some of the va- 
rieties are five feet high, and unless they are supported. 



THE ONIOK. 189 

they will break or bend over, until the seed heads either 
touch the ground, or approach it so closely as to be dam- 
aged by the moisture. This support is most easily given 
by stretching twine a few inches below the seed heads, 
one along the middle of the bed, and another on the 
outer edge of every bed. The seed is ripe enough for 
gathering, when the pods commence to burst open, and 
heads and stalks turn yellow. The stalks are carefully 
cut six or eight inches from the heads, which are allowed 
to fall into a bucket or open bag, otherwise some of the 
seed may shell out and be lost. Partly-matured seed 
will not ripen fully, if the stalk is cut close to the seed- 
cluster. 

These must be spread out upon the close floor of a dry 
loft, or hung up to dry thoroughly, when they may be 
thrashed out, winnowed, and washed. The false seed 
and husks will float upon the surface of the water, 
while only the good seed will sink to the bottom of the 
vessel. The seed must be quickly and thoroughly dried 
in the sun before being stored away. 

o:n^ioi^ sets. 

At Norfolk, onions for the Northern markets are not 
grown from the seed, as the crop would not sufficiently 
anticipate those of more northern latitudes; but from 
sets* or small onions. Those of the '' Potato-onion" are 
put out in August and September, and sets of the ^^ Silver- 
skin" and ^^ Yellow Danvers" in February. 

The '^ Potato-onion " produces no seed, but forms from 
three to ten small bulbs around the old one, from which 
it is propagated. These small bulbs, when planted out, 
increase in size, and form a large and marketable onion. 
These produce the earliest crop of local growth, and even 
survive the winter as far north as Vermont. The prep- 



* The English word ''sets" may have come over from the German 
" Setz-Zwiebel," that is : planting- onions. 



190 TRUCK-FARMIiq^G AT THE SOUTH. 

aration of the ground for these and for other onion sets 
is the same as for the crop from seed. 

The sets are pressed into the soil at the distances the 
crop is to mature, the toj)S about level with the surface, 
care being taken to have the root end down. The sets 
should range in size from that of a pea to a common- 
sized marble. The smaller the better. When the bulbs 
are too much developed, they are apt to run to seed in- 
stead of producing good onions. Onion sets are often 
high-priced, costing from live to ten dollars per bushel; 
but they may be grown at the South with proper manage- 
ment. The land should certainly be free from weeds and 
grass, lighter and less richly manured than for the crop. 
The rows may be ten inches apart, and the seed should 
be sown late in the season, about May 1st, and much 
thicker than when intended to produce large bulbs. 
From fifteen to twenty pounds to the acre are required. 

INSECTS. 

The larvae of the Dipterous, or Two-winged insects, 
which at present infest the onion in this country, pene- 
trate it at the root; and the first indication of their pres- 
ence are symptoms of disease and approaching death. 
There is no remedy, but to dig up every wilted and 
yellow plant, and to hunt for and destroy the grub with- 
in the rotting bulb, with a view to curtail future depre- 
dations. 

The black Onion -fly {Or talis flexa), is a native of 
this country, while {Antliomyia ceparum,) is an im- 
ported insect. 



THE PEA. 191 



CHAPTER XXII. 



THE PEA (Pisum sativum.) 

/bis, French ; Erhse, German ; Erwat, Dutch ; Rsello, Italian ; Pesoles^ 
Spanish ; and Er-vilha, Portuguese. 

The pea is a hardy annual, a native of the south of 
Europe, and has been cultivated from time immemorial. 
We are told that, in the time of Queen Elizabeth, peas 
not being very common in England, they were brought 
from Holland, and that they were ^^ fit dainties for ladies, 
they come so far, and cost so dear." Where labor for 
picking the crop is plentiful, it is one of the indispensable 
crops of the truck-farmer, bringing in the first proceeds 
of the season. 

VARIETIES. 

A good market variety should be productive, of good 
fiavor, form full, pods plump, and be of uniform growth. 
Frequently a gardener plants poor seed, which runs to 
vine, and produces but few good pods. The varieties 
themselves are subject to change, and will deteriorate, 
unless constant care is exercised in growing them for 
seed. The varieties at present preferred, enumerated in 
the order of their earliness and value are : 

First. -The "Early Alpha." This is, exclusive of the 
"American Wonder," the only wrinkled Dwarf Pea. It 
grows three feet high, is very productive, and produces 
large pods of dark green color. The objection to all the 
wrinkled peas is, that they must be sown thicker than 
the round varieties. 

Second.— The "Philadelphia Extra Early." This is 
very uniform, when the seed is pure, and is productive. 



192 TRUCK-FARMIIs^G AT THE SOUTH. 

Third. — The '^ Daniel O'Kourke." This is an excellent 
early pea, and is very pojoular with Northern growers. 
Its height is about three feet. 

Of the later kinds, the '' Black-eyed" and ^^White- 
marrowfat " take equal rank, and grow about four and a 
half feet high. 

SOIL AND SOWING. 

The large, later and more hardy marrowfat varieties 
may be planted in the vicinity of Savannah as early as 
November 30th, following with the earlier kinds; but in 
usual seasons December 1st is early enough for the first 
sowings. In the case of a plant so hardy as the pea, it is 
possible to grow it, in middle to south Florida, to mature 
at any time during the winter. It is well, if a large crop 
is to be planted, to make separate sowings at intervals of 
a few days, in order not to have the whole jDlanting subject 
to unfavorable contingencies at the same stage of growth. 
No usual degree of cold in this latitude will hurt the pea, 
unless it be in bloom or pod. 

A dry, rich, warm, sandy loam is the best soil for this 
crop. For the wrinkled varieties, it is especially neces- 
sary that the soil should be warm and dry. These do 
not seem to be so well matured as the round sorts, and in 
moist, or wet and cool soils they may fail to germinate, 
and may rot in the ground. Good stable manure is the 
best. The field being in proper condition, it is manured 
in the furrow at the rate of twenty-five or thirty loads, of 
thirty bushels each, to the acre, the rows being five or six 
feet apart, according to the variety. The seed is sown 
in double drills, about ten inches apart, on flat beds or 
ridges over the manure. The quantity of seed required 
for an acre is about two bushels. As regards the distance in 
the row, the peas are distributed according to size, about 
half an inch to an inch and a half, by hand, or by means 
of a driU, which sows both parallel drills at the same time. 



THE PEA. 193 

The opinion, I believe, generally prevails that the deep- 
er peas can be sown, the more productive will be the 
croj), and the longer will it remain in bearing. One and 
one-half inch is the usual depth in a sandy loam. 

CULTIVATION. 

As the growth of the pea crop extends through the 
winter and early spring, when weeds are not abundant, 
cultivation is only, or chiefly, necessary as a promoter of 
growth. The soil between the ridges may be stirred 
twice, or more frequently in an unfavorable season; but 
as soon as the plants grow to two or three inches, the 
earth should be hoed to the stems, when dry, gradually 
earthing higher up, as the peas increase in hight. All 
peas, save the dwarfs, not only fruit better, but continue 
longer in bearing and mature better, if they are bushed. 
As soon as they commence to ^^run " to vine, or to put 
out their clasping tendrils, which will be when about ten 
or twelve inches high, according to variety, they should 
be bushed or stuck. Branching sticks are thrust between 
the drills so firmly into the ground as not to be blown 
down, and near enough to be a support for all the j^lants. 
This will not only be facilitated, if the sticks cross each 
other in the row near the surface, but they will be a mu- 
tual support. When the bushes from which the sticks 
are to be cut are more or less convenient, the expense 
of this sticking will be from three to five dollars per 
acre. The first shipments are usually made from Savan- 
nah about March 10th. The early varieties admit of 
about five pickings; the later, one or two more; one hun- 
dred and fifty to two hundred crates being the yield per 
acre. 

Peas were sold the past season at from one dollar and 
fifty cents to five dollars and fifty cents per bushel crate, 
while fifteen years ago I received twenty dollars per barrel 
on April 5 th. 
9 



194 



TRUCK-FAKMING AT THE SOUTH. 



No pocl should be picked or packed which is yet flat, 
for the reason that the peas are not sufficiently developed; 
and none that are discolored or rough from over-riiDeness 
should be marketed. The ordinary bushel crate is the 
only package used at present. The contents should be 
thoroughly shaken down, and the crate be more than full, 
when ready to be nailed up. 

The two w^eevils, BrucMs jnsisind Bruchus granarius, 
which are principally injurious to the pea, affect the 
farmer only in so far as they are destructive to h]s seed, 
the larvae inhabiting it and feeding on its substance. 

Though they usually leave the germ untouched, and 
buggy-peas wall germinate, yet the plant, being without 



I 





Fig. 48. — PEA-WEEVIL {BriccJim pUi). 
a. Beetle, enlarged ; b, Pea, "oith spot. 



Tig. 49. — GRAIN BRUCHUS 

{Bruchus granarius). 



the nutriment provided for its early growth, is weak at 
the start, and is never so vigorous and productive as 
those from sound seed. Our common Pea- weevil {Bruchus 
pisi) is given in fig. 48, much enlarged, its real size 
being show^i in the outline at the left. The Grain 
Bruchus or Barn-beetle of Europe {Bruchus granarius), 
fig. 49, infests both peas and beans. It is sometimes 
imported wdth foreign seeds, but has not yet become 
naturalized. It is somewhat smaller than the Pea- 
beetle, and the markings of the two are very different. 
The Cotton Boll-worm [Heliothis ar7nigera) is some- 
times found feeding upon the pea, but too seldom to do 
much harm. 



THE POTATO. 195 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



THE POTATO {Solanum tuberosum.) 

Pomme de ierre, French; Kartoffel, German; Aardappel, Dutch; Tartvfi 
bianchi or Fomo di terra, Ital ; Fapas, Spanish. 

The active principle, Solanin, characteristic of the 
family Solanacece, to which the potato belongs, has been 
fonncl, but in much smaller proportions than in other 
members, in the saj), in the berries, and also in tubers of 
the potato after they had sprouted. For this reason 
sprouted potatoes are less valuable for food than before 
the development of sprouts, although in the process of 
cooking a change is effected in the composition. 

The chief organic ingredient of the potato is starch, 
which forms about one-tenth of its weight. It has gen- 
erally been admitted, that the potato was first introduced 
by the Spaniards into Europe from South America (it is 
still found in its wild state in the mountains of Chili), 
and that Sir Walter Raleigh introduced it into England 
from Virginia. Whether this is strictly the history of 
its appearance in Europe, or not, the potato has been 
found indigenous in Mexico and Arizona. Johnson 
wrote: *^ The potato is one of the greatest blessings be- 
stowed upon mankind; for, next to rice, it affords sus- 
tenance to more human beings than any other gift of 
God." Unlike the latter (the continuous use of which 
sometimes affects the eyes), it may be the exclusive food 
of man for an extended period without injuring the 
system. And it is owing to the absence of any distinct 
peculiarity of taste, to its wholesomeness and to its con- 
sisting largely of starch, in every particular resembling 
the flour of grain, that it may be continuously used as 



196 TRUCK-FAEMING AT THE SOUTH. 

a chief article of food for a longer time than any other 
yegetable. It is somewhat strange, that the family 
which embraces the deadly nightshade, and other very 
poisonous plants, should also have among its members 
this most useful vegetable, besides a few others that are 
mentioned in this book. 

'Of all the crops of the truck-farmer, the potato is the 
one which is always salable at more or less remunerative 
prices; its general use among all classes and nativities of 
the population, precluding a glut in the market. 

Owing to the prevalence of drouth at the North dur- 
ing the summer of 1881, the staple crops of potatoes and 
cabbages having been failures, the winter stock was so 
nearly exhausted, that extensive importations were made 
from Europe; and when our Southern crops came into 
market, they enjoyed an unprecedented demand and high 
prices. My own small crop sold at from six to seven 
dollars for No. 1, averaging six dollars and sixty cents 
per barrel, and *' culls" from three dollars to four dol- 
lars and fifty cents, averaging three dollars and forty-five 
cents per barrel. 

Those farmers who planted largely and had good crops 
of these vegetables made a ^^hit" in their operations. It 
is likely that others, induced by this success, will plant 
potatoes and cabbages more heavily than usual, and re- 
duce the acreage of other valuable products. I embrace 
this occasion to advise truck-farmers, that they will 
probably thrive better in the course of time, by confin- 
ing themselves to their usual areas of each crop, and by 
not allowing themselves to be influenced by periodical 
successes with any one vegetable. 

VARIETIES. 

A variety of potatoes to be cultivated by the Southern 
truck-farmer should be productive in our climate of large 
and even-sized tubers, growing close together in the hill, 



THE POTATO. 197 

with few or no small ones, it should be early and be 
popular enough in the Northern market to command the 
highest prices. At present the ^^ Early Eose " meets these 
requirements and is generally the favorite, but the 
*^ Beauty of Hebron," and the ^^Burbank," arc also 
planted. The potato grown in Bermuda is the " Chili 
Red." 

SIZE OF SEED. 

One of the mooted questions in gardening is : whether 
it is more advisable to plant the whole potato or to cut 
it up into sets. The experiments undertaken to decide 
the question have failed to establish any certain rule; and 
the intelligent farmer will readily understand that cir- 
cumstances must govern the case. 

The potato tuber is not a root, for it has neither root- 
hairs itself, nor has the stem which connects it with 
the parent stock either fibrous roots or root-hairs and, 
therefore, provides the plant with no nourishment; nor 
is it a seed any more than is a stick of sugar cane a seed. 
The tubers are nourished by elaborated sap descending 
from the leaves through the bark. The formation of 
abnormal tubers above the ground at the point where 
the stem of a plant has been injured by a cut-worm, or 
otherwise, or in the axils of branches, is, among others, 
a proof of this. The potato is an enlarged underground 
stem, and the eyes are buds. These buds are more numer- 
ous at the point furthest from the plant, just as the buds 
are closer together at the end of a branch of the fig or 
any other tree. When the potato has dried out suffi- 
ciently and is surrounded by favorable conditions of 
warmth and moisture, the eyes or buds begin to grow; 
and until roots have been emitted for their nourishment, 
the shoots are dependent upon the starch of the sur- 
rounding substance for their support; resembling a seed 
in this respect. The eyes are independent of each other. 



198 TRUCK-FARMIKG AT THE SOUTH. 

having no vital connection. If both eye and tuber be 
sound, the shoots will grow to be healthy plants, if condi- 
tions are favorable, whether they be planted with the en- 
tire tuber or only connected to a small piece of its de- 
tached substance. 

The following rule has been given: cut large potatoes 
to single eyes; small potatoes will produce as good a crop 
if cut in pieces corresponding in size, for the young 
sprout requires substance to push it forward. The intel- 
ligent farmer should have an object in view, and his 
operations should be undertaken to attain it. In this 
case his purpose is to procure a crop of as many large 
potatoes as possible. It will not be secured, if many 
stalks grow from each set, any more than four or five 
stalks of corn to the hill will produce large ears of corn, 
though single stalks may. AYhatever be the size of the 
potato, it should be fully matured. If any Irish or Sweet 
potatoes are found rotten in the hill, they are always the 
largest, which have decayed after becoming over-ripe. It 
is, therefore, safest, for fear of having many stalks in the 
hill, to use a medium-sized tuber, cut to single eyes, pro- 
vided the buds show signs of development. If none of 
the eyes are developed, or only one is, that one only, 
from the whole potato, is apt to grow, the rest re- 
maining dormant. The eyes upon seed j^otatoes procured 
from the North are very apt to sprout npon arriving in 
our warm climate, and these should always be cut to 
single eyes. Northern seed potatoes should not be im- 
ported, until the farmer is ready to plant them. If the 
first shoots are rubbed off or killed by frosts, the suc- 
ceeding ones will be weaker and are apt to be more 
numerous. 

In cutting potatoes to single eyes, the cutter com- 
mences at the stem end, where the eyes are less abun- 
dant, and slices off pieces with a single eye to each, in 
such a manner as to distribute the substance of the tuber 



THE POTATO. 199 

as equally as possible. If rules are to be given, they 
should be: cut a large potato to single eyes, whether 
sprouted or not. Small potatoes may not be ripe enough 
to grow strong shoots; but if a small potato is enough 
matured to put forth sturdy sprouts, cut it also to single 
eyes; for very little substance will suffice for their suj^- 
port; but, if the potato has not sprouted, it may be 
planted whole, without much danger of its pushing uj) 
more than one stalk. Of late years. Southern truck- 
farmers have found that home-grown seed of the second 
crop of Irish potatoes, maturing late in the fall, whether 
cut or not, gives the best yields. This is owing to the 
fact, that the tubers, being a shorter time out of the 
ground, are not so dry, and put forth only single shoots. 
There is no fear that their first sprouts have been rubbed 
off, before being jDlanted. 

SOIL AND CULTIVATION. 

In an open, warm, sandy soil, the sets may be planted 
soon after being cut; but for a cool, moist and heavier 
soil, the cut surfaces should be dried by spreading the 
sets in the shade for a day or two, or, if put up in bulk, 
they should be sprinkled with lime or land-plaster. 
Either will prevent them from shriveling and be beneficial 
as a fertilizer. 

The quantity required to plant an acre will be about 
three to four barrels, according to the size, and the man- 
ner of cutting the potatoes. While the plant is indig- 
enous to Southern latitudes, it is found at considerable 
altitudes above the level of the sea, and partakes of the 
peculiarities of those of cool climates, generally sue- 
ceeding better at the North than at the South. Unlike 
its relatives, the egg-plant and tomato, it is intolerant of 
dryness and heat, and should therefore be planted as 
early as the season will admit, in order to escape warm 
weather. About February 1st is soon enough for the 



200 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 

'* Early Eose." Some yarieties start even earlier than 
this, and a week later would better suit the ^' Beauty of 
Hebron/' for instance. If Southern stock is offered in 
the Northern markets while the Northern winter supply 
is abundant, and still of good quality, very good prices 
can not be expected. It will, therefore, not be the pol- 
icy of Florida growers to put in their crops much earlier 
than the date named. 

On account of its native habitat the potato requires at 
the South a cool, moist soil. Low, black moulds in 
river bottoms, if well drained, may give enormous yields; 
but the product is apt to be of inferior quality and decay 
readily, tlie gluten predominating over the starch in its 
composition. No vegetable varies more in quality on 
different soils. A variety may be fine on a good soil and 
nearly worthless for table use on one not adapted to it. 
The mealiest and best-flavored potatoes are grown on 
sandy soil, but for a satisfactory yield, a good, rich, 
sandy loam, with an abundance of vegetable matter is 
indispensable. 

Wliatever be its character, the soil should be broken 
up deeply and thorougly mellowed, in order that it may 
absorb and retain moisture. Ereshly cleared ground, of 
good quality, produces better crops than old land, prob- 
ably in consequence of its greater content of potash. The 
soil should have been previously enriched for a ^Dreced- 
ing crop. The roots will extend beyond the drill, and 
poor land fertilized with the same amount and quality 
of manure in the furrow will, therefore, not produce 
satisfactorily. 

Stable manure or barn-yard manure is chiefly to be 
relied upon by the potato grower. Composts of good 
commercial fertilizers with leaves or leaf-mould with the 
specially adapted potash salts, or ashes and bone-flour, 
may be used where a sufficiency of stable manure cannot 
be had. As a rule, land can scarcely be made too rich 



THE POTATO. 201 

for the potato. The new varieties, unlike old ones, will 
not run to vine from heavy manuring; but will yield in 
proportion to their food, probably in consequence of 
their greater, and yet undiminished vigor. Fresh, dry 
stable manure, especially in dry, light soil, should not 
come in contact with the sets, lest the heat destroy their 
vitality. The same applies to Peruvian guano, fish scrap, 
hen manure, etc. Eich animal manures may render the 
tubers rough, ill-shaped and knobby. If the common 
German kainit is used, it should be sown broadcast, or 
harrowed in, two months before planting time, for fear 
the chloride of magnesium it contains may otherwise 
injure the crop. 

The enormous prize crops reported some years ago to 
a New York house, for instance of ten barrels, or four- 
teen hundred and seventeen pounds from a single pound 
of seed potatoes, nineteen barrels from a single hill of 
two sets, prove the astonishing effects of heavy manur- 
ing, and at the same time the possibility of the use of 
very small sets. In some cases a single eye was subdivided 
into ten pieces, a single pound furnished two hundred 
and forty sets. The largest crop, per acre, upon record 
was made about forty years ago by Mr. Knight, the cele- 
brated horticulturist, and President of the Royal Hor- 
ticultural Society (Eng.), of thirty-four tons (English) 
and nine cwt., equal to twelve hundred and eighty-four 
bushels of sixty pounds each. 

From sixty to one hundred barrels per acre is quite a 
satisfactory crop for the Southern truck-farmer. The 
usual mode of planting is in the drill. When in hills, 
they are made three by two, or three by three, feet apart, 
and two or three sets are planted in each, so that they 
may be cultivated both ways. The land being in proper 
condition, furrows are made by the plow three or three 
and a half feet apart, into which the manure, if planting 
is on a large scale, is distributed, at the rate of forty 



202 TRUCK-FARMIXG AT THE SOUTH. 

loads to the acre, by a manure-spreader, and the sets are 
placed upon the manure, cut-side down at from twelve 
to fifteen inches apart. In light, warm land, the sets may 
at once be covered by the plow to the depth of six inches, 
and in the subsequent cultivation no hilling up is neces- 
sary or advisable. On cool, heavy land, it is advisable to 
cover at first to the depth of three or four inches, and so 
early in the stage of growth, as not to injure the roots, 
an additional inch or two may be drawn to the plants by 
the hoe. Subsequently the workings by plow and hoe 
should be superficial. As soon, however, as the first 
shoots become visible, the surface of the rows should be 
raked over, to loosen the soil and destroy any germinat- 
ing or young weeds. Two plowings and two hoeings 
will generally sufiice, with hand-weeding between the 
plants, if necessary. The crop should not be worked 
after the plants commence to bloom and to set the tubers. 

HARVESTING THE CROPS. 

A potato is immature and unfit for food, so long as 
the skin can be readily slij)ped from the surface. If 
dug prematurely, they will be bruised and blackened 
in the barrels, and be unsalable at fair prices. When 
the plant dies, and not before, the crop may be gathered. 

A good plowman may be able with a double-mould 
plow, or potato-digger, to throw out an extensive and 
less valuable crop than that of the truck-farmer, without 
too much loss and bruising, but here a plow should only 
be used to side the rows and the potatoes be dug out with 
steel-pronged hoes, or potato-drags. 

To avoid unnecessary handling, the potatoes should be 
assorted as first quality and culls (too small tubers being 
rejected) in the field. Cloudy weather is the best suited 
for digging the crop. Potatoes will not endure exposure 
to the hot sun. If packed while warmed by the sun, they 
are apt to rot before reaching market. If dug during 



THE POTATO. 203 

sunshine, they should be gathered as dug, carefully 
emptied into barrels already ventilated, and either 
promptly hauled from the field, or each barrel shaded 
by potato vines. 

The diggers should not be permitted to bruise the po- 
tatoes by pitching them upon ^^iles or distant rows; nor 
the i^ickers by throwing them roughly into their baskets. 
The more carefully a vegetable is handled, the better will 
it strike the buyer's eye, and consequently, the more 
money w^ill it bring tho grower. AYhatever be its size, 
no cut or bruised potato should be shipped in the first 
quality, but may be included i:i the ^^ culls." The bar- 
rels must be well shaken down, and so full that the heads 
have to be pressed upon the contents, and they should be 
double-headed and strongly coopered. 

The crop generally matures in this latitude about the 
middle of May. An unripe potato in which the starch 
has been imperfectly formed is slow to dry out and slow 
to sprout. 

THE SECOND CROP. 

A sufficient quantity of the '^ culls" should, there- 
fore, be reserved from the ripest portion of the field 
for seed of the second crop, and stored in a cool, dry 
place, excluded from the light. They may be covered 
on a barn floor in alternate thin layers with very dry 
sand, or put away in bushel crates. 

If exposed to warmth and moisture two or three 
weeks before planting time, sprouting may be hastened 
and a better stand be secured. The time to put in the 
second crop is from the latter part of July to August 
10th. If the eyes have sprouted, the tubers should be 
cut, but otherwise planted whole. 

As at this time the weather is warm and the season 
of gi'owth short, they should be well manured and the 
land deeply broken up and pulverized to retain mois- 



204 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 

ture. The crop will be matured before frost, which 
generally occurs about November 1st, when it should 
be dug and the seed stored away, as recommended above. 

DISEASES AND INSECTS. 

The fungoid disease, sometimes so destructive to the 
potato crops of Europe, and of the northern part of this 
continent, will rarely, if ever, affect our early crops of 
early varieties, and the later ones must be exempt in 
consequence of the heat, as cool moisture seems neces- 
sary for the development of this disease. 

The earliest crops at the North escape great injury 
from the Colorado Potato-beetle {Boryphora Vd-lineatd), 
and ours will therefore remain exempt from that pest, 
should it come South. The insects infesting the potato 
at the South are of the Lepidoptera: 
First — Gortynia nitela (the Potato-stalk borer). 
Second — Spliinx quinquemaculata (the Potato-worm). 

Among the Coleoptera. 
"Yhivdi—Baridius trinotatus (the Potato-stalk weevil). 
Fourth— Xem« trilineata (the Three-lined Leaf -beetle). 
Y\it\\—Laclmosterna quercina (the White-grub). 
^\xi\i—Deloyala clavata (the Clubbed Tortoise-beetle). 
Seventh— Z?/^/f^ marginata (Margined Blister-beetle). 
:Eighth—Lyffa vittata (Striped Blister-beetle). 
Ninth — Ltjtta cinerea (Ash-grey Blister-beetle). 
The first three of these attack the plant only in the 
larval state. 

Numbers 1 and 3 are more injurious than any 
others, as they devour a vital part, and live within the 
stalks. The Potato-stalk Borer lives within the stalks 
of several plant?, including the Dahlia and other flowers, 
and attacks the tomato as well as the potato. When 
full grown, it enters the earth, and in about two months 
comes out as a small moth, fig. 50. 



THE POTATO. 



205 



Tlie Potato-stalk Weevil lives within the stalk in a 
similar manner to the borer, but it undergoes its changes 




Fig. 50. — THE POTATO-STAXK BORER. 
Moth. Larva. 



within the stem, and finally appears as a small beetle. 
The different stages are shown in fig. 51. When a vine 






Fig. 51. — THE POTATO STALK WEEVIL. 
a. Larva ; b. Pupa ; e, Beetle. 

is seen to wilt, or to be dying, the stems should be ex- 
amined for the larvae, and burnt to prevent an increase of 

the insect. The worms 
of the potato and to- 
/] mato-moth and the 
other insects, exclu- 
sive of the blister- 
beetles, are not numer- 
ous enough to inflict 
much injury. The 
Three-lined leaf -beetle 

Fig. 53.— THREE-LINED LEAF BEETLE. fccds UpOU tllC plant 

a, Larva; 6. End of Body; c. Pupa; d. Eggs. '^^ '^.g \^^,y.^\ and per- 
fect state. The larvae can be distinguished from any 
others, by being covered, like the larvae of the Tortoise- 




206 



TRUCK-FARMIi^G AT THE SOUTH. 



beetles, by its own excrement, as shown in fig. 52. The 
perfect insect has a general resemblance to the Striped 
Cucumber-beetle. 

The White Grub is a general feeder, and destroys the 
roots of many different plants. The larva is shown at 
fig. 53, and the perfect beetle, the well-known June-bug, 
in fig. 54. 

The principal insect enemies of the sweet-potato are 
the Tortoise-beetles, of ^hich there are several, some of 






Fi^^. 53. 

WHITE GRUB. 



Fis:. 54. 

JUNE-BUG. 



Fiff. 55. 

CLUBBED TOR- 
TOISE-BEETLE. 



them of singular beauty. One of them, the Clubbed 
Tortoise-beetle {Deloyala clavata, fig. 55), forms an ex- 
ception, and selects the common or Irish potato as its 
food plant, feedmg upon it in its perfect state, the larva 
of this species being unknown. 

The Blister-beetles feed upon the foliage in the perfect 
state only. They are sometimes quite abundant, particu- 
larly upon the second crop. Some of the farmers near 
Savannah were compelled to use Paris green last season, 
to stay the ravages of Lytta marginato.. 



THE KADISH. 



207 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



THE RADISH (Raphanus sativus). 



Radis and Have French ; Beiiig, Gennan ; Tamme radijs^ Dutch ; Eafano, 
Italian ; end Sabano, Spanish. 

The Radisli is not kno\rn in the wild state, and its 
native country is doubtful. It is mentioned as being 
cultivated in England in 1584. 

The radish, to be marketable, should not lose its ac- 
ceptable crispness, and I have, therefore, never heard of 
its satisfactory cultivation for the Northern markets 
south of Norfolk. 

The varieties there used are: ^'Tho Long Scarlet Short 
Top," and ''The Scarlet Tur- 
nip," which are sown, as the 
season will admit, at any time 
from Christmas to the last of 
February. A light, mellow soil 
is best adapted to this crop, as 
it produces cleaner, nicer rad- 
ishes, and of better flavor, than 
a heavier soil. This applies 
particularly to the longer-rooted 
varieties. The manure should 
be deeply plowed under. The 
field having been plowed in narroAV lands and finely 
harrowed, the seed is sown broadcast at the rate of 
about twelve pounds to the acre, and covered with a 
light harrow. The crop is sometimes large enough 
to be marketable in March, but it is generally shipped 
throughout April. The radishes are washed, bunched, 
and packed tightly in ventilated barrels, generally 
holding about two hundred bunches. The price 




Fig-. 60. — SCARLET TUKNIP- 
KADISH. 



208 TRUCK-FARMIITG AT THE SOUTH. 

ranges Ioav; but these vegetables sometimes sell as high 
as eight dollars per barrel. In case of very warm weather, 
a lumj) of ice is of late years sometimes packed in the 
centre of the barrel. 



CHAPTEE XXV. 

SPINACH (Spinacia oleracea). 

Wpinard, French ; Spinat, German ; Spinagie, Dutch ; Spinaci, Italian ; 

Espinaca, Spanish. 

The common Spinach is an annual plant, supposed to 
be a native of Western Asia and to have been introduced 
into England about the commencement of the sixteenth 
century. Spinach is very extensively used at the JS'orth, 
and when the supply of other green vegetables has been 
short, that grown at Norfolk has sold for eight dollars 
per barrel; but the price is very variable. I have never 
heard of its bemg grown for the Northern markets, as far 
south as Charleston. The variety raised at Norfolk is 
the " Improved Curled American Savoy." The seed is 
sown from September 10th until October 15th, in drills 
thirty inches apart, requiring from ten to twelve pounds 
to the acre. The land must be warm and strong, and 
the plant requires exceedingly rich manuring. The gar- 
deners at Norfolk supplement their stable manure with 
Peruvian guano. Some of them add to the lieavy ma- 
nuring given in the fall a top-dressing of a ton to the acre 
of the best guano. The crop occasionally pays well, but 
costs the best growers one hundred and iifty dollars per 



THE SQUASH. 



209 



acre to raise it. When the land is very good, the rows 
may be only eighteen inches apart. This plant, like the 
cauliflower, must never be stunted, but be pushed from 
the start. 

When the leaves are about an inch broad, the plants 




Fiff. 57. — SPINACH. 



are thinned to from six to eight inches. The crop must 
be frequently hoed. The Norfolk crop is marketed in 
March, and is packed tightly in ventilated barrels. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



THE SQUASH (Cucurhita Pepo.) 
Courge Melonee, French ; Melonenkurhis, German. 

The Squash is a native of the Levant, and was first 
introduced into England in 1597. The Summer Squash 
is an early vegetable, bears transportation well, if picked 
at a proper stage of growth, and brings satisfactory, 
though never fancy prices. Sometimes, however, a part 
of the crop may be left on the farmer's hands. W^ith the 



210 



TRUCK-FxVRMING AT THE SOUTH. 



large, but late and unproductive winter squashes, the 
truck-farmer has no concern. Of the early summer 
squashes the two varieties cultivated for the Northern 




FiSJ. 58. — SQUASH— WHITE BUSH SCALLOP. 

markets are: the ''Early White Bush Scallop," fig. 58, 
and the '^' Early Summer Crook-neck," fig. 59. 

Tlie latter is much the best flavored of all the bush 
squashes. It is of a dark orange color and is covered 
with warty excrescences. When sufficiently grown for 




Mg. 59.— SQUASH— £UMMER CROOK-NECK. 

shipment, it is about ten inches long. Although this 
may sometimes be preferred, and occasionally command 
a better price, the scallop squash is the favorite, as it 
bears transportation and is packed mucli better. The 



THE SQUASH. 211 

Southern farmer may save his own squash seed, but for 
fear of mixing, he must, as with all the other members of 
the same family, avoid having any others of the same 
family growing near by. 

SOIL AiS^D CULTIVATIOIS'. 

The squash is a little more hardy than the melon and 
cucumber, and is planted from about the last of February 
up to the middle of March, in the latitude of Savannah, 
and, of course, earlier to the southward. This crop re- 
quires a light, warm soil, and liberal manuring, particularly 
when planted so early. It is usually grown in hills four 
or five feet apart each way, the manure being dug in 
somewhat, as recommended for melons, at the rate of 
two shovelfuls to the hill. From six to ten seeds are 
sown to each hill, and the plants thinned to a stand after 
the development of a couple of rough leaves. 

Instead of growing in the hill, and leaving two plants 
in each as is usually practised", I prefer to manure in the 
drill, to sow the seed at two feet apart, and to leave, final- 
ly, but a single plant every two feet. If sown as early as 
March 1st, it is advisable to make at least a second sowing. 
The cultivation is the same as for cucumbers. 

MAKKETING. 

If squashes intended for shipment to the Northern 
markets, were to be picked, or rather cnt (for they 
should never be broken from the plant) in as green and 
tender condition, as for the local demand, they would 
arrive at their destination, bruised, blackened, and unsal- 
able. Even if they could be delivered in sound condition, 
squashes in such an early stage of growth would not suit 
the trade. The proper time to pick them is when they 
have nearly attained their full growth, and for the scallop 
variety, just as they have lost the green, and are acquiring 



2Vi TRUCK-FAEMIKG AT THE SOUTH. 

a white and glossy appearance. At this time the rind is 
still penetrable by the finger nail. 

Squashes may be shipped either in barrels or crates, 
and they must be so carefully packed as not to be bruised 
during transportation. 

i:n^sects. 

The insects infesting the squash plant, besides the al- 
ready mentioned striped-bug {Dicibrotica vittata), which 
is more frequently on the cucumber, are: 

First — The Twelve-spotted Squash-beetle {Diahrotica 
12-punctata). 

Second — The Squash-bug {Anasa tristis). 

Third — The Squash yine-borer {^geria cucurUtce). 

Fourth — The Melon-worm {Pliacellura hyalinitalis). 

Fifth — The Squash Lady-bird [Coccinella horealis). 

The injuries inflicted by, and the remedies applicable 
to the twelve-spotted squash-beetle, and the cucumber- 
beetle or striped-bug, are identical and are described un- 
der *• Cucumber." 

The offensively smelling, rusty-black colored, hemip- 
terous -'^squash -bug" affects the plant in the larval 
and perfect state. It destroys the leaves in a manner 
similar to the harlequin cabbage-bug, by sucking out 
their juice. The yellowish brown eggs are laid in little 
clusters on the underside of the leaves. Both eggs and 
insects are readily detected, and may be hand-picked. 
The squash vine-borer lives, and inflicts its injury within 
the stem of the plant. The first indication of its presence 
is the wilting of the vine. The larvae may be killed by 
destroying such vines, to prevent the increase of the in- 
sect. The melon-v/orm (see ^' Melon") only attacks the 
later crop of squashes, and should be destroyed whenever 
found. The squash lady-bird, is the only species of the 
Coccinellidge which does not befriend the farmer. This 
insect feeds both in its larval and perfect state upon the 



SWEET-POTATO. 213 

leaves of the squash. The eggs are deposited in groups 
on the under surface of the leaves. The color is dull 
yellow with nineteen black spots on the thorax and wing 
covers. Hand-picking is the remedy. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

SWEET-POTATO {Ipomoea Batatas). 

Patate, French ; Siisze Karioffel, German. 

The native country of the Sweet-potato is unknown, 
some authors accrediting it to America, and others to the 
East Indies. It was used as a delicacy in England, long 
before the Irish potato was known, it having been im- 
ported from Spain. The plant was introduced into Eng- 
land by Gerarde in 1597. Were it not for the fact 
that the taste for this potato and the manner of cooking 
it at the North differ so much from that common at the 
South, the sweet-potato could be made a very profit- 
able crop. Here it is baked, while at the Xorth it 
is usually boiled. The most salable, and, in fact, the 
only extensively marketable variety in any of the North- 
ern markets, is the '' Delaware," ''Jersey," or, more 
correctly, the "Nansemond," (at one time called the 
''Brimstone"), which at the South is regarded as a most 
inferior sort, unfit for the table, unsalable in local mar- 
kets, and, in consequence of its unproductiveness, -un- 
suitable for cultivation. While boiling will make any of 
the Yam varieties mushy, baking renders the Nansemond 
like so much dry flour. Although I have several times 
received nine dollars and ten dollars per barrel for the 
Nansemond of the first quality, in Boston and Baltimore, 



214 TRUCK-FAEMIi^G AT THE SOUTH. 

I have for years abandoned the crop. Many of the tubers 
do not attain a marketable size in time to anticipate the 
Virginia crop, or before August 1st, and therefore the 
whole fails to be remunerative. The other varieties pro- 
duce few, but uniformly large, potatoes, while the Nan- 
semond has a great number of small ones. Still, circum- 
stances may alter the case, and others may succeed better 
with this variety than I have done. The sweet-potato 
Avould be then a i^rofitable crop. The other varieties may 
produce from two hundred to eight hundred bushels to 
the acre; but several of the Yam varieties sj)lit open and 
become useless when highly manured and grown to a large 
size, say from two to six pounds. This objection does 
not apply to the Pumpkin Yam, which is also a produc- 
tive and good table potato for home use. 

EAISING THE ^^ DRAWS " OR SETS. 

The sweet-potato is propagated by '^ draws " (or 
^^ slips" in the up country, and ^^sets" or plants at the 
• North), by " roots," as the Irish potato, and by '^ slips" 
or cuttings of the vines taken from the growing plants, 

The crop of the truck-farmer is grown only by 
^* draws." The chief danger in producing these consists 
in killing the eyes by exposing them to too much heat. 
In this latitude, and further South, they are more safely 
grown in cold-frames, prepared about the last of Janu- 
ary. The light, warm soil of a cold frame having been 
dug up, raked, and leveled, the seed potatoes are placed 
on the surface, a half-inch or so apart. Specimens of 
more than about two and a half inches in diameter may 
be divided in two, lengthwise, and the halves laid on the 
bed with the cut surface down. 

If the weather and the soil are dry, the potatoes may 
be watered and then covered evenly with about three and 
a half inches of light soil. The soil will settle a little. 
The frames should never be closely covered with the sash. 



SWEET-POTATO. 215 

even at night, except in cold weather, and never in 
bright sunshine. In dry weather, the soil may require 
watering. 

In case the draws are well grown, even commencing to 
'' run" and crowd each other, before the season admits 
of their being transferred to the open ground, they may 
be drawn and heeled-in closely in another cold frame, to 
await favorable weather. In the meantime other sprouts 
will form for another pulling. To heel them in most 
expeditiously, a wedge-shaped opening is made across the 
bed, by plunging the spade into the moist soil to its full 
depth, and pushing it backwards and forwards. Such a 
drill will hold several hundred plants. The opening of 
the next drill, five or six inches distant, will press the 
soil to the roots of the plants in the first drill. They 
may be put out as soon as danger from frost is supposed 
to be past; in this latitude about April 1st, and earlier at 
the Southward. They may, however, precede other ten- 
der plants, for a hoar frost will not kill potato draws out- 
right if they were properly transplanted. The soil best 
adapted to the sweet-potato is a warm, well-drained, 
light, sandy loam, or pure sand. 

PEEPARING THE SOIL. 

This is an exception to all other vegetables, inasmuch 
that the soil should not be deeply stirred. A hard bot- 
tom to the row is needed to induce a short, plump growth 
of the potatoes. On deeply plowed, sandy soil, on a 
porous subsoil, the ''Yellow Red" variety has grown 
over a yard in length and but an inch or less in diameter, 
and very few well-shaped potatoes were in a crop. If the 
surface is to be stirred, it should be done by a small plow 
as superficially as possible, or by means of a horse-hoe. 
The old-fashioned ''listing," where the plants are to be 
put out on an elevated ridge, or bed,- is the best prepara- 
tion, the only objection being, that in case it is necessary 



216 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 

to cover in much vegetable matter, the beds must be 
made high, in order to furnish soil enough in which to 
set the plants. Further North such beds are necessary; 
but for this latitude and to the Southward, on light, 
v/arm, well-drained soils, I disapprove of high, pointed 
beds, because of their drying out so rapidly. The "^an- 
semond will not thrive in heat and dryness. Well-rotted 
stable or cow-pen manure, or a good compost, should be 
spread upon the list at the rate of twenty-five loads to 
the acre, and covered by the plow. On clean land, with- 
out any list, it is spread on the surface in rows, three and 
a half feet apart, and covered with soil. The ridges 
should be raked down to within a few inches above the 
general surface. 

Potash is especially needed in the soil for this crop. 
The best manuring that can be given to land for the 
sweet-potato is by cow-penning it. Apart from the 
adaptability of the manure for the needs of the crop, a 
special benefit results from the compacting of the soil by 
the trampling of the cattle. 

No variety produces a more satisfactory draw than the 
Nansemond. It has more abundant and longer roots 
than any other, which may be more readily pulled from 
the potato without disturbing it in the bed. 

TRAlfSPLAKTIKG. 

The draws are put out with a trowel, or a flat or round 
dibble, on the tops of the ridges, about fifteen inches 
apart, and inserted one or two joints deeper than they 
originally grew. They are thus not only likely to bear 
better, but are safer from injury by a severe white frost; 
they will not be killed outright, but will sprout again 
from the buds on the stems that are below the surface. 
In subsequent culture, superficial hoeing, with one plow- 
ing, as the vines commence to run, will suffice, care being 
observed never to cover any part of a vine. 



SWEET-POTATO. 217 

DIGGIKG THE CEOP. 

When the crop is to be dug, if the vines are not yery 
abundant (a kixu riant growth above ground is by no 
means a sure indication of a good crop below it), they 
may be torn away by the plow, the point not being 
permitted to enter the ground. This is only practi- 
cable with the Nansemond and other small-yined varie- 
ties. The '^ Peabody," " White Yam," and some others, 
have vines that are too thick and strong. If the growth 
is too heavy, they must be stripped with sharp hoes; 
when the rows may be sided by the plow and the crop 
dug with steel prong-hoes. The gathering, assorting, 
and packing are the same as in the case of the Irish 
potato, with the exception that sweet potatoes are less 
susceptible of injury by sunshine, and they may be ex- 
posed long enough for the soil to become dry and rub off 
in the handling. 

POTATOES FOK SEED. 

The proper time to put up seed potatoes for the next 
crop is as late as possible in the fall, or after the first 
white frost has touched the leaves. The opinion gen- 
erally prevails that potatoes grown from draws will not 
keep well. Probably it is so, only because such are 
over-ripe. Seed potatoes are saved from plantings of 
slips or cuttings. The earlier they can be made, as soon 
as the vines have grown long enough and the weather 
is sufficiently wet, generally in this latitude about June 
1st, the better. The longest, and, therefore, hardiest 
vines being selected, an evenly laid bundle as large as 
the hand can grasp is placed on a board, and cut with 
a sharp hatchet in lengths of about fifteen or eighteen 
inches, rejecting the delicate end pieces. These cuttings 
are laid across the ridges at twelve or fifteen inches 
apart, and pressed down into the soil by means of a 
10 




218 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 

notched dibble (ligare GO). The vine is fixed about 
its middle in the notch, thus making, as it were, a 
double cutting. If vines are scarce, single cuttings may 
be made of four or five joints, the lower three leaves 
being cut away. These may be planted with a com- 
mon dibble. 

The cultivation is the same as before. The seed may 
be preserved in a dry cellar, but is usually put up in po- 
tato banks. The surface in a dry situation 
is leveled and covered to the depth of four 
of five inches, with dry pine straw; the po- 
tatoes are placed upon this, storing not 
more than fifteen or twenty bushels in each 
bank. Pile them in as sharp a cone as pos- 
sible, and cover first with pine straw, then 
closely with corn stalks, in order to shed 
Fig. 60.— SWEET- ^|-^g rains, and finally with five or six inches 
of soil. This covering will absorb the mois- 
ture which escapes from the potatoes, but large banks 
should be provided with a ventilating hole at the top, 
the admission of rain water being prevented by a cover. 

INSECTS. 

The insects that attack the sweet-potato are: 

First. — Haltica cuciomeris, (Cucumber Flea-beetle). 

Second. — Sjjhinx cingulata, (Sweet-potato-moth). 

Third — Cassida hivittata, (Two-striped Tortoise-beetle). 

Fourth. — Cassida aurichalcea,((}o\dLQi\ Tortoise-beetle). 

Fifth. — Cassida guttata, (Mottled Tortoise-beetle). 

Sixth — Cassida ?z?V/rz/j>e5, (Black-legged Tortoise-beetle). 

Seventh. — Ghelymorpha cassidea. 

The first-named and smallest of these (described under 
** Cucumber") is the most injurious, attacking the few 
leaves of the young plants as soon as they are put out. 
The remedy for the flea-beetles, — dusting with lime, soot, 
or Paris green — if very abundant, may be resorted to. 



SWEET-POTATO. 



219 



The large green worm of the sweet-potato-moth 
(Sphinx cingulata) very much resembles the tomato- 




^Ati<; 








Fig. 61.— TWO-STRIPED TORTOISE-BEETLE ( Cassiclci bivittata). 
1 Larva, natural size : 2, Larva : 3, Pupa ; 4, Beetle, all magnified. 

worm^ but is not in sufficient force to do much injury. 
The moth is especially distinguished from Sphinx Carolina 




Fig. 62.— GOLDEN TORTOISE-BEETLE ( Cassida aurichalceo). 
a, Larva, natural size ; b, enlarged, with dung removed ; c. Pupa ; d, Beetle. 

and Sphi7ix qui7iquemaculata by its pink-striped under- 
wings. The larvae of the tortoise-beetles, although some- 





Fig. 63. — MOTTLED TORTOISE-BEETLE (Cassidcc guttata). 

a, Larva: h, Pupa. 

times abundant, are not sufficiently so to diminish the 
crop of the truck-farmer. They have, like those of 



220 TRUCK-FARMI^TG AT THE SOUTH. 

Lema trilineata, the peculiar habit of covering themselves 
with their own excrement. 

The past season, I noticed, for the first time, a number 
of the perfect insects of Chelymorplia cassidea feeding up- 
on the sweet-potato. It is said to feed upon the milk- 
weed, and, I believe, has been found on the wild convol- 
vulus, or morning glory. It is a yellow, oblong-oval, 
beetle, somewhat similar to the tortoise-beetle in form, 
about three-eighths of an inch long, with a pair of black 
dots on each side of the thorax, and six black spots on 
each wing- cover. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



THE TOMATO (Lycopersicum esculentum). 

Tomate, French ; Liebes-Apfel, German ; Appeltjes des liefde, Dutcli ; 
Porno d^oro, Italian ; Tomates, Spanish. 

The order Solariacecs or Nightshade family contains 
over twelve hundred s23ecies, among which are three of our 
most wholesome and important vegetables — the Irish 
potato, the tomato, and the egg-plant. It also includes 
the red pepper and the narcotics, bittersweet, belladonna, 
Jamestown or ^' Jimson weed," the tobacco and others. 

The Tomato was first introduced into Europe from 
South America in 1596; but for many years it was ex- 
clusively cultivated as an ornament to the flower-garden. 
It came very gradually into use in the preparation 
of sauces and in soups, having attained i^opularity only 
within the last forty years. In the north of the European 
continent and in England it is not yet popularized; while 
in France and Italy, particularly near Rome and Naples, 



THE TOMATO. 221 

it is produced in large quantities. It is a strange fact 
that, in Sicily, the tomato, when ripe, becomes sour and 
so unfit for use that the island has to be supplied from 
the vicinity of Naples on the neighboring mainland. 

Like all vegetables, grown on such an extensive scale, 
and so well adapted for transportation to distant markets, 
the prices the tomato commands are very variable. The 
farm-gardeners on Long Island and other points in the 
vicinity of New York rarely receive better prices than 
from twenty-five cents to one dollar per bushel, while 
fine stock arriving early on a bare market, has occasion- 
ally brought very high prices. Thus, some years ago, I 
received sixteen dollars per bushel-crate in Baltimore 
(at the rate of eight cents each), and in Boston and Balti- 
more, which are the best markets for this vegetable, I 
have frequently received eight and ten dollars per bushel- 
crate. Now that Florida anticipates more Northern 
localities in shipping tomatoes (though very frequently 
of inferior quality, sufficient care not having been paid 
to assorting and packing), these prices are past. The 
returns now range between one dollar and fifty cents and 
five dollars per crate, according to the length of the ship- 
ping season. The yield is from one hundred to two hun- 
dred crates per acre. At the North, where five thousand 
plants are required to the acre, and where the bearing 
and picking season is longer, four hundred bushels are 
obtainable. 

VARIETIES. 

The great number of varieties enumerated in seed cata- 
logues has only interest for the amateur. There is little 
or no difference in the time of maturing the fruit, what- 
ever claim may be made in the advertisements. This is 
probably owing to the neglect to save seed repeatedly from 
the choicest and earliest fruit. A good market variety 
should be of medium size, round and smooth, with few 



223 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 

seeds; it must be firm, must ripen evenly and have a 
bright red color. The ^^Acme/' the '^^Livingston's 
Perfection," the ^'^Eound Smooth Eed," and the *' Hatha- 
way" fill these requirements; the first-named having at 
present the preference. The *^ Trophy" and ^'Fejee 
Island" are both of excellent quality and appearance, but 
the first is objectionable on account of its too great size 
(not satisfactorily measurable by the quart), and the lat- 
ter on account of its shape. The ^'^Pear-shajied" and 
the *^ Yellow" and **Eed Cherry" are only used for 
pickles and preserves. 

SELECTION OF SOIL. 

The tomato will better resist drouth than it v/ill too 
much rain, and indeed better than most vegetables; the 
soil, therefore, best adapted to this crop is a sandy 
one, or a high sandy loam. On low ground, well 
drained or not, in dry or wet seasons, the plants 
are liable to die out about the commencement of 
bearing. The fruit will even rot on high sandy 
soil, when the plants are manured with muck that has 
been exposed to the atmosphere for eight months. The 
tomato is not a gross feeder; it prefers a poor soil to one 
that is too fertile, nor will the plant bear any considerable 
application of stimulating fertilizers, such as Peruvian 
guano, hoof -trimmings, fish scrap, etc., which will 
certainly cause it to run to vine, and to make the fruit, 
particularly the first, decay before attaining full size. 
Those which do mature will be watery and not carry well. 
A good crop can be made with one shovelful of well -rotted 
stable or cow manure, or good compost, to the hill, or 
upon a soil which has recently produced a well manured 
crop. In the last case no manuring would be needed. 

SOWING THE SEED. 

Slow growth being requisite to produce good stocky 
plants, the seed should be sown about January 1st on un- 



THE TOMATO. 



223 



manured soil, in cold frames, in drills across the beds four 
inches apart ; and earlier or later, according to the de- 
gree of latitude south or north of Savannah. If sown 
late, the soil should be slightly enriched and moderate 
forcing may be necessary. If, after sowing, the weather 
should be cold and cloudy, the ground should be kept 
warm by means of the glass; but if warm, with much 
sunshine, the frames must be kept open or shaded, and 
the soil moist, until the plants have come up. Under 
the shade and moisture of the front boards of the frame 
the plants are apt to damp off, and to grow small and 
slender under the reflection of the sun near the back. It 
is therefore advisable to sow the seed more thinly near 
the front and back than in the middle of the bed. To 
avoid a too spindling and crowded growth, the plants 
should be thinned as soon as they are large enough to be 
handled with safety, and transplanted to fill vacant spaces 
in other cold frames, or thrown away. A tomato plant 
should never be put out in the open field, if avoidable, 
without having been previously transplanted. When the 
plant is pricked out deeper than it stood in the seed bed, 
it will throw out numerous small fibrous roots along the 
stem and at the root, to which the soil will adhere, when 
acrain taken up; and will therefore be apt to suffer less 
check at the final transplanting. When about four inches 
hioh near the middle of February, pricking out into 
other cold frames, with the soil as in the seed bed, should 
be commenced. Set the plants down to the seed leaves 
at three or four inches apart, or if very large plants are 
desired, more space may be allowed to each. At those 
distances, each three by six-foot sash will cover from one 
hundred and sixty-five to two hundred and ninety plants, 
and an acre will require the use of at least eleven sashes. 
A very stocky growth can be obtained by stopping or 
cutting off the tops of the plants just above the seed 
leaves, as soon as vigorous growth has commenced. They 



224 



TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 



will throw out a stem at tlie axil of each seed leaf ; 
thus producing, as it were, two plants from each root, 
which, when planted out deeply, will support each other 
and tend to increase the yield. If this operation is per- 
formed, before the plants have taken root, only one bud 
is likely to become deyeloped. It may still pay those 




Fig. 64.— BOX FOR TOMATO PLANTS. 

further south, who can ship the earliest tomatoes of the 
season and secure the highest prices, to prick out into 
three or four inch flower-pots or into boxes holding several 
plants each, these boxes being plunged in the cold frames. 

BOXES FOR TOMATO PLANTS. 

In former years, before shipments from Florida antici- 
pated my crops, I used for my entire crop, boxes like 



THE TOMATO. 2.25 

those in fig. 64, holding twenty plants each. These 
measured twenty-three and three-fourths by eighteen 
inches by seven inches high; they were made with two 
end boards eighteen by seven inches, and three-inch laths 
twenty- three and three-fourths inches long. When made 
of these dimensions and placed in contact in rows of three 
boxes across the bed, a cold frame six feet wide will rest 
with its upper and lower edges upon the adjoining end 
boards of the boxes. The boxes may be less than seven 
inches deep. They are filled with soil which has 
been screened or is naturally free from roots, sticks, peb- 
bles, etc. Before removal from the frames, the soil must 
be saturated with water, when the plants can be cut out 
in the field with a sharp-edged bnck-layer's trowel and 
placed with blocks of soil adhering to the roots, in 
squares previously made by the plow, using a double 
mould-board. A hoeful of soil drawn to each side of 
the plant finishes the planting. In this manner plants 
may be put out on the highest ground, in the driest 
weather, and during the hottest midday sunshine, without 
wilting or the slightest apparent check to growth. 

TRA^rSPLAl^TTII^G. 

If, however, the plants pricked out into cold frames 
are taken up carefully, with as much moistened soil ad- 
hering to the roots as possible, they may be planted out 
with the dibble or trowel, without loss, when the soil is 
only moist enough for the holes to be made, the recom- 
mendations given in the chapter on '^Transplanting," 
being easily observed. 

The distances at which the plants are put out will de- 
pend upon the fertility of the land and the variety ; the 
usual distances are three to three and one-half feet in the 
rows, which are from four to six feet apart. The season 
and danger of frost will determine when to put out 
the plants, which is about April 1st. A tomato plant. 



226 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 

however, if of stocky growth, will resist a slight frost, 
and the earlier it can be put out the better. If white frost 
be apprehended, the plants may be protected when grown 
on a small scale, by means of boxes or any other screen, 
or by smoke; but when on a large scale it is cheaper 
to have a surplus on hand, in case of loss by frost. 

CULTIVATION. 

The first workings are done with a cultivator or a horse- 
hoe, running both ways. The plow and hoe leave the crop 
free from weeds, and on wide beds, at the time picking 
commences, the soil will be well drawn up to the stems, 
but without having covered up the young shoots issuing 
from the main stem, and which will bear fruit. Train- 
ing the vines to a single pole or to two placed parallel, 
or to a trellis, may be practiced on a small scale. Prun- 
ing the vines is not advisable. The fruit matures in this 
latitude about June 1st. Below is a table showing the 
dates of sowing, pricking out, planting and harvest for 
seven consecutive years: 

of harvest, 
June 5, 
June 7. 
June 3. 
May 30. 
May 22. 
May 28. 
May 31. 

PICKING AND PACKING. 

The distance from market, or time required in trans- 
portation, will determine the stage of ripeness at which the 
fruit is to be picked. Fruit exposed fairly to the sun will 
show the commencement of the ripening ]3rocess on the 
upper surface, while that in the dense shade of luxuri- 
ant foliage will first redden on the flower end. In the 
vicinity of Ciiarleston and Savannah, the proper stage has 
been reached, when the tomato has attained a yellow 
cast; and in Florida, as soon as it is full-grown and 



Dates of sowing. 


of pricking out. 


of planting. 


Jan. 14. 


Feb. 15. 


Mareli 27. 


Jan. 14. 


Feb. 17. 


March 16. 


Jan. 9. 


Feb. 20. 


March 26. 


Jan. 4. 


Feb. 26. 


April 1. 


Jan. 5. 


Feb. 28. 


March 24. 


Jan. 8. 


Feb. 12. 


April 1. 


Bee. 19. 


Feb. 12. 


March 19. 



THE TOMATO. 227 

shows the least sign of ^^ turning." Generally the pick- 
ing is done there, when the tomato is much too green to 
ripen projierly, and at the cost of the producer. The 
pickers should not place leaky or decaying fruit in their 
baskets to soil the rest. Tomatoes, like all other stock 
for which good prices are expected, should be carefully 
assorted, both as to quality and degree of ripeness, all 
inferior or worm-eaten fruit being strictly excluded. To- 
matoes should not be emptied out of the baskets into 
the crates and shaken down like potatoes, but packed 
singly, in order that they may lie compactly, so that 
upon arrival in market, each package may present a full 
and unshaken appearance. In the moie careful packing 
practised in later years, the fruit has been wrapped in 
paper. This wrapping protects the remainder of the 
fruit from leaking or decay in the crate. Paper for the 
purpose should be porous, soft and strong. Pieces seven 
inches square (forty-nine square inches) will answer for 
fruit of medium size. 

A tomato as it is picked from the plant may fre- 
quently present a perfectly sound appearance, until tlie 
stem is removed, when it is found to contain a well- 
grown worm of Heliotliis armigera the Cotton-boll 
worm ; the insect, while very small, having penetrated 
the fruit under the calyx. A reason for rubbing off all 
the stems, is, the danger of their bruising other fruit or 
tearing the wrapping paper. In our Southern climate, 
an early tomato plant will not continue in bearing be- 
yond the first part of August ; but a succession may be 
secured by putting out plants in July from seed sown in 
May, or early in June. From this crop, grown in hot 
weather, however, neither the yield nor the size of the 
fruit will be as satisfactory as the earlier one. Plants 
may also be propagated from cuttings of old vines, if set 
out in moist ground ; but many frequently fail to take 
root. 



228 TEUCK-FARMIITG AT THE SOUTH. 

SAVING THE SEEDS. 

For seed, the earliest well-matured^ and in every re- 
spect, the choicest fruit should he selected, and those 
which were grown on soil best adapted to the tomato. 
As the objectionable knobby fruit is produced from dou- 
ble flowers, and these are said to res,alt from the use of 
old seed, the fruit from which to save seed should only 
be gathered from plants raised from fresh seed. The 
fruit, when soft and over-ripe, should be mashed in any 
convenient vessel and stirred daily for three or four days, 
when the seed may be washed from the pulp and dried. 

INSECTS. 

Young tomato plants are liable to be cut down by sev- 
eral kinds of cut-worms.* During the Spring of 1882, 
the green larvae of Sphinx Carolina, and Sphinx quiyique- 
maculata were very numerous and destructive; but owing 
to paucity of number, the damage was generally slight. 
More severe injury is done, and particularly to the 
earlier and therefore most valuable part of the crop, by 
the caterpillar of the Cotton-boll worm, (or the ^^ Corn- 
seed worm," Heliothis armigera.) They rarely, and 
only when very young, touch the leaves ; but penetrate 
the green fruit, one worm often boring into several. 
Hand-picking in either case is the only remedy. Just 
before the first picking for market, all the punctured 
fruit should be gathered and either fed to the stock or 
destroyed. 

Sometimes a large green worm may be found with one 
or two of what appear to be very minute eggs, adhering 
tightly to the skin at one of the rings of the body, 
or covered apparently, with eggs. Such a worm should 
not be destroyed. The supposed eggs are the chrysalides 
of an Ichneumon fly, its appropriate insect enemy. 

*See Chapter on Insects. 



THE WATEEMELOJS". 229 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

THE WATERMELON {Citrullus vulgaris). 

Pasteque, French ; Waissr-M^lone, German ; Wa^er melora, Dutch 

Cocomero, Italian. 

The Watermelon was probably the melon of the Bible, 
and, as has been incidentally stated, was known to the 
Jews in Egypt. 

Watermelons may be more or less successfnlly grown 
from Key West to New Jersey, and from as far south in 
the interior of Florida as transportation facilities enable 
the farmers to ship the crop profitably. Commencing 
about May 15th, they are forwarded to the North by 
steamships and to the North-west by rail. 

Owing to the size and nature of the fruit, it has to be 
shipped in bulk, and, even with careful handling, in 
transit, accidental breakages will occur; but, if the en- 
tire crop, exclusive of losses by unavoidable causes, could 
reach the market, none would, under favorable circum- 
stances, pay better. * 

* The losses upon watermelons shipped to Boston have been so general 
that the subject has been discussed by the " Vegetable and Fruit Grow- 
ers' Association," with a view to provide a remedy. G. R. McRee. Esq., 
of Lowndes County, Georgia, one of the largest growers of melons for 
shipment to the North, wrote to the author in September last as follows: 
" I have almost quit shipping to Boston on account of the heavy losses. 
I have lost as much as fifty per cent, of some of my consignments, and 
never expect to get ofE with less than twenty per cent."— In December 
last Mr. McRee wrote: " You are at liberty to use any statement from 
me, in reference to the loss on steamers, in your forthcoming work. My 
losses by the Boston ships have been so heavy that I have very nearly 
quit the line. I sent only two or three consignments by it the past sea- 
son, and these were shipped by the forwarding agent of the railroad be- 
cause the New York ship was missed." 

LA.TER Note.— I am constrained by a sense of justice, to state that 
after the above was in type, the agents called upon me, as President of 
the "Vegetable and Fruit Growers' Association of Chatham County," 
and promised that at both ends of the line, with the finer ships and new 
staffs of officers and crews, they would endeavor to remove the cause 
of complaint.— A. O. 



230 TRUCK-FARMIKG AT THE SOUTH.' 

AVOIDABLE LOSSES. 

The melon, like most other plants, is subject to insect 
depredations ; but it is not from losses to the farmer by 
these minute objects, nor by the unfavorableness of sea- 
sons (although the melon is among the most uncertain 
of crops), nor by any of the other contingencies v/liich so 
often make the profits of the agriculturist doubtful, 
that his success and his income are diminished; but by 
depredations and theft. After his crop is harvested, 
quick and safe transportation to market is a chief factor 
in successful truck-farming. Without it the industry 
must fail. 

With the transportation lines from Savannah, I 
have had an experience of twenty-seven years. In that 
time I have been the largest, and am now the oldest 
grower of melons in this immediat3 region, and know 
w^hereof I write. Previous to the war, the pilfering of 
melons was carried on to such an extent that two Sea 
Island cotton planters, my relatives, who planted them 
most extensively, w^ere by self -protection compelled to 
admit the captains, or pursers of the steamships, into co- 
partnership, allowing them a part of the profits. Then, 
and then only, could melons be shipped with safety. 
Since that time, a vast improvement has been made. If 
it be a difficult matter to prevent these losses to the ship- 
per, the agency shows a praiseworthy endeavor to curtail 
them, and there seems to be a fair prospect of still further 
future improvement. 

The two I^orthern markets, where melons invariably 
command the highest prices, are Boston and New York. 
Under the same conditions of safety the preference would 
be decidedly in favor of the former ; but the handling 
has been so careless, and the ^' shortage " so outrageous, 
as to discourage shipments to that market. 

I have lost as many as two hundred and twenty-nine 



THE WATEKMELON. 231 

melons from a single shipment. The great loss is not 
under the head of specked or decayed (principally owing 
to rough handling), but missing. The melon is not an 
evanescent object which disappears without trace like ex- 
ploded gun-cotton. 

A fair yield to the acre is one thousand melons, large 
enough for shipment, or ranging from fifteen pounds up- 
wards. In consequence of a disease which has been killing 
the yines of late years, about the time the fruit is form- 
ing, the crop more frequently falls below than exceeds 
that number. I have examined the roots and vines in 




Fig. 65. — WATERMELON—" RATTLESNAKE 



vain for insects, to account for this disease, and have not 
yet been able to ascertain the cause. 

It is probably not attributable to an insect in the root, 
like the larv83 of the striped-bug in the cucumber, for 
the disease sometimes first manifests itself in a single 
side-runner. 

My melons sold the past season in the N"ew York and 
Boston markets at from twenty-five to fifty dollars per 
hundred. 

VARIETIES. 

A variety to be fit for shipment should be large, with 
a rind thick enough to carry well, should not ^^ burn" or 
become discolored in the field by the hot sun, and should 
*'cut" red throughout, without a lighter colored hard 



232 TRUCK-FARMIKG AT THE SOUTH. 

*^core.'' At present the ^'Eattle-snake" fills these re- 
quirements better than any other. This variety origi- 
nated in Eichmond County, Georgia. 

SOIL A]S"D PEEPARATION". 

The soil best adapted to the watermelon is a light, dry, 
warm sand, lately cleared, or which has not been culti- 
vated for at least three years. 

This peculiar adaptability of new ground is probably 
attributable to the opening of the soil by the decaying 
roots of vegetation,. Whatever compacts the soil is in- 
jurious to the crop. A rainy season, owing partly to the 
consolidating of the land, is most unfavorable to success. 
On new ground, the first formed young fruit are more 
apt to become developed, and in larger numbers, and 
particularly are they all liable to shrivel and drop off oi: 
old recently cultivated land after a heavy rain or frequent 
lighter ones. This applies particularly to the sandy land 
of the coast. Notwithstanding the very succulent char- 
acter of the fruit, wet weather is more damaging than 
drouth. 

The field having been plowed and harrowed, it is laid 
off, according to the usual custom, ten or twelve feet 
each way, to mark the hills. For this purpose, a double 
mould-board plow is the best implement. It makes 
straight smooth furrows and wider openings at their 
crossings for the hills. Instead of these distances I prefer 
to make my hills six by twelve feet apart, and leave but a 
single plant in each, rather than two plants. With the 
same average area for each vine I conceive that the single 
plants will produce a greater number of large melons to 
the acre. The openings made by the plow are enlarged 
to about three feet in diameter, and deepened below the 
depth of the surface soil, and one or two shovelfuls of 
decayed stable, cow or hog manure, the latter to be 
preferred, are dug up and intimately mixed with the sub- 



THE WATERMELON. 233 

soil, by means of hoe, spade, or digging-fork. The hoe, 
although not so effective, is the more expeditious tool 
in the hands of negro laborers. Green stable manure or 
any other kind that is fermenting, or heating, is not 
suitable for melons on light land. If in place of the 
above, a compost of muck or woods-earth with cotton- 
seed meal or fish guano is used, the quantity should be 
two shovelfuls, containing about one pound of the meal 
or guano. When manure is plentiful enough, it may be 
applied in the drill or even broadcast, notwithstanding 
the distances of the plants, for most of the roots of 
the melon plant are long surface roots. Manured only in 
the hill, the plant derives less beneSt from the fertilizer. 

SOWING THE SEED. 

A flat hill, elevated two or three inches above the general 
surface, is made over the manure with the removed surface 
soil, and in the middle of each the first sowing of from six 
to ten seeds is made, one or two inches deep, according to 
the nature and degree of moisture of the soil. As in 
the case of cucumbers, I make two more sowings at in- 
tervals of a week, putting in three or four seeds at each, at 
which rate it will require from two and one-half to three 
pounds of seed per acre. A temperature of about sixty- 
five degrees is required to sprout melon seed ; and there is 
rarely anything gained in this crop by making the sow- 
ings too early, as cold weather, even without frost at 
night, will give the plants a check from which they 
will never recover sufficiently to produce a good crop. 
While melon seeds may be jDlanted in the middle of 
Florida, in January and February, March 15th is quite 
early enough for the first jjlanting in the latitude of 
Savannah, and, of course, later further North. 

CULTIVATION. 

If the first sowing has failed, or the plants have been 
killed or injured by cold, it is best to await the growth 



234 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 

of the second or even of the third planting ; otherwise, 
as soon as the first has made two rough leaves, and the 
others are up, the top of the hill should be stirred by a 
hand-weeder, or other hand implement, or by the fingers ; 
and the loose soil drawn to the stems up to the seed- 
leaves, at the same time thinning the plants to a couple, 
of each sowing, or even to less, if they crowd each other. 
Of course, the strongest, healthiest looking plants are to 
be left. It is sometimes the case that plants from the sec- 
ond sowing are more advanced than those from the first, 
when all of the latter should be removed. To stir the 
soil and destroy young weeds, the cultivator or horse-hoe 
is run in both directions over the whole surface, and as 
near the hills as possible without disturbing them. They 
should be thinned to a stand early enough to prevent 
crowding, and the hills hoed about the time the plants 
commence to '' run," and the soil drawn w^ell up to the 
seed-leaves, great care being taken not to cover the leaves 
or crown. Before the vines reach the edge of the hills, 
two furrows should be thrown to each side of the row. 
It requires careful plowing to throw the soil to the middle 
without disturbing the hills, which are only six feet apart. 
This is done by depressing the right handle of the plow, 
or pushing it inward to the rows as the plow reaches 
each hill, and erecting it again in passing. Melon vines 
should never be handled, if it can possibly be avoided, 
and, therefore, as the vines cover the bed, and before 
they extend beyond it, the plow is used repeatedly, un- 
til the plants are left on wide beds separated by a wide 
furrow. Before the second plowing, hoes should be care- 
fully used around the hills and between the vines with- 
out touching them rudely ; removing all weeds before 
overlooked. Watermelons come into market from Florida 
about the latter part of May; and from the vicinity 
of Savannah and the adjacent Sea Islands, about July 
1st. 



THE WATERMELOK. 



GATHERING THE FRUIT. 



285 



An experienced picker can recognize from its general 
light and bright, but not glistening appearance, v/hen a 
melon has reached a proper state to be cut from the vine 
for shipment, before it is fully, or ^' red" ripe, and he 
may do so without any other loss of time than is required 
to detach it from the vine and to place it on end for the 
carriers. Roads should be convenient, for it is impossi- 
ble to induce the laborers to avoid treading on the vines, 
even when they do not cover the ground. The less ex- 
perienced pickers must look for other signs of ripening, 
and the 'n)elly," or lower surface, where it has been in 
contact with the earth, presents the most reliable in the 
appearance of the pores of the skin. When these become 
perceptible to the touch, by a roughness of the skin, or 
can be seen, or the rind has become too hard to be read- 
ily indented by the finger nail, the melon may be j^icked 
for shi]3ment. 

The shriveling or dying of the '' curl," or little ten- 
dril nearest to the melon, or in the axil of the stem, is a 
usual, but not a certain rign of ripeness. 

A ripe melon sounds hollow upon percussion with the 
knuckle ; but thumping is only practicable in the early 
morning, for a large unripe melon has the same reso- 
nance during the hot midday sun. If the ** belly" is 
yellow and blistered the melon is surely full rijDe. Pres- 
sure upon the fruit to^hear the sound of the rupture of 
the flesh within, if ripe, is objectionable. It injures the 
ripe as well as the green, and should never be resorted to. 

INSECTS. 

It is possible, nay, even probable, that the late, gen- 
erally observed perishing of melon vines may be entirely 
attributable to insects, and in part, to an unknown one. 
Wire-worms, or larvae of DiahroticcB, may be the cause 
of the death of some. 



236 TKUCK-FAEMIXG AT THE SOUTH. 

The injury to the seed-leaves of young plants by flea- 
beetles is annoying, but never extensive enough to war- 
rant the application of a remedy over the large area of a 
melon cro23. Of the several plants in each hill a vigorous 
one may be expected to escape injury, until the develop- 
ment of rough leaves, when the danger from this source 

ceases. 

The watermelon is a food plant of the yellowish green, 
nearly translucent larva of an insect very similar to the 
pickle-worm moth, PUacellura hyaUnitalis. If this in- 
sect has two broods, the first, or spring brood, must be 
very limited in numbers ; for I have never known the 
early melon crop for shipment to be damaged, while later 
crops suffer very severely. Not only are the leaves de- 
voured, but the worms gnaw and penetrate the fruit. It 
is, of course, the policy of the farmer to destroy the in- 
sects in all its stages, whenever possible ; but no remedy 
has as yet been found that can be profitably a]3plied. The 
Phacellura is known to be subject to two parasitic in- 
sects : the Pimpla conquisitor, and a Tachina fly. 



CHAPTER XXX. 



THE STRAWBERRY (Fragaria). 

Fraisier, French ; Erdheere, German ; Aardbezle, Dutch ; Pianta di fragola, 
Italian ; and Fresa^ Spanish. 

The Strawberry, with the majority of the cultivated 
fruits of Northern climates, belongs to the Rose family. 
It well deserves its botanical name, Fragaria (from fra- 
gro, to emit a sweet odor), for no other fruit is so frag- 
rant. While some who have written upon the straw- 



THE STKAWBEEBT. ^37 

berrv make nearly a dozen species, the most accurate 
botanists fail to find more than three or four, that are 
really distinct. The most widely distributed species is 
Fragaria vesca, the Wood or Alpine strawberry. In 
this the seeds (really one-seeded seed-vessels) are not 
sunken in a cavity in the fruit, but are promment npon 
the surface. This is the most widely distributed species, 
beino- found wild in Europe, Asia, and in this country. 
From this are derived all the cultivated Alpme strasvber- 
ries, so popular on the Continent of Europe, and so sel- 
dom grown in this country. 

F.^cirancUflora, the Large-flowered strawberry, is a 
native of South America, and on the Paoiflc coast ex- 
te^rds northward to California. The Chilian strawberry 
(F. Chiknsis) is now regarded as a form of this. ^ 
^ F Virginiana, the Virginia or Seariet strawberry is our 
most common wild strawberry. It is found ^oni «^e 
Arctic circle to Florida, and extends northward to Ore- 
son and Washington Territory. Occurring m a great 
variety of localities, several of its forms have been 
described as species. This and F gramhfiora are the 
parents of the strawberries generally cultivated, ihey 
difler from the Alpine species in having their seeds in a 
cavity more or less deep. The other species which have 
been described as distinct are of no importance to the 

cultivator. , .. t. 

The strawberry was apparently known to the Komans 
only in its wild state, for none of their writers have men- 
tioned it as among cultivated fruits. It is first mentioned 
as having been cultivated in England during the reign ot 
Richard III, in 1483. AVith the exception of a variety 
of Wood strawberry raised in France about 1660 no im- 
proved variety of the strawberry was known until late m 
the last century, after the introduction »* the Large- 
flowered and the Virginia strawberries. With the pro- 
duction of improved seedlings, as well as hybrids, new 



238 TRUCK-FAEMIKG AT THE SOUTH. 

varieties increased rapidly both in this country and in 
Europe, varieties of the former species seeming to be bet- 
ter adapted to the climate of Europe, while those of the 
latter are preferred in this country. 

The wild berry is vastly superior to most of the new 
varieties, which the mania for size, regardless of the more 
valuable qualities of flavor, and aroma, has developed. 

All the wild species and most of the improved varieties 
have perfect flowers. They contain both stamens and 
pistils, and are termed hermaphrodite flowers. In the 
strawberry, the numerous pistils are crowded upon a 
rounded body in the centre of the flower, called the re- 
ceptacle. Immediately around these are the numerous 
stamens. As soon as the pistils are fertilized by the pol- 
len from the stamens, they begin to grow, and the lower 
part of each one ripens into a diminutive, bony, one- 
seeded nutlet, Avhicli popularly passes for the seed, and 
it is convenient, for the sake of brevity, to call it so. As 
the pistils themselves, after fertilization, begin to ripen, 
the receptacle on which they are placed begins to grow, 
and at length becomes the juicy, fine flavored mass with 
which we are familiar as the strawberry, though in struc- 
ture it is not the fruit, but merely an appendage to the 
proper fruits. Unless the pistil is fructified by the pollen 
of the same, or of some other flower, through the medium 
of insects or of the wind, it must remain sterile, or fruit- 
less, or " blind." The flowers of some of the improved va- 
rieties, particularly those originating in this country, are 
entirely without stamens, or have them imperfectly devel- 
oped. Such are the ^'pistillate" varieties, as for instance 
the old ^'Hovey's Seedling," and the later '^ Crescent." 
Having no stamens, they must be fertilized by pollen 
from other flowers and we must plant at least one row 
of a perfect variety to each ten rows of the pistillate 
kind, for that to become fruitful. There are many dis- 
advantages connected with the cultivation of these pistil- 



THE STRAWBERRY. 239 

late varieties, and as there are many as good, or better, 
with perfect flowers, the former should be discarded. 

VARIETIES AND YIELD. 

A variety may be adapted to a certain soil and climate, 
and be totally nnsuited under different conditions not 
very distant. Of the many varieties that are fine and 
popular at the North, few succeed under the continued 
heat and dryness of a part of our summer season. 

The principal requirements of a market variety for 
shipment to distant points are : 

First, Its adaptability to our climate. — Second, Pro- 
ductiveness. — Third, Fair size. — Fourth, Sufficient firm- 
ness to enable it to endure the rough handling and delay 
of transportation without injury, so that it may arrive in 
market in good presentable appearance and condition. 

The old ^^ Wilson's Albany," or ^MVilson," and the 
'^Neunan" or "^Charleston" meet these conditions better 
than any others. The latter is a more attractive and better 
flavored berry, is more productive of runners, and is 
rapidly superseding the "Wilson" as the Southern 
market variety. 

Where all the conditions for its successful culture are 
favorable, the strawberry has long been, in the vicinity of 
large cities, the gardener's most valuable crop. 

As long ago as 1850, the average net profit of a Scotch 
acre * of strawberries in the vicinity of Edinburgh was 
from one hundred and seventy-five to two hundred dol- 
lars, the land renting at from twenty-five to seventy-five 
dollars per acre. 

The heaviest shipments to our Northern markets are 
made from Norfolk, Virginia, where probably the largest 
strawberry farm in the world is located, one cultivator 
having two hundred and fifty acres in this fruit. Large 

* The Scotch acre contains six thou.sand and eighty-four square yards, 
and is about one and a quarter acre English. 



240 TRUCK-FAEMIKG AT THE SOUTH. 

shipments are dso made from Charleston, S. C, to the 
Eastern markets, and from Mobile to those of the West. 
In 1879, seven hundred and thirty-four thousand and 
ninety-three quarts were shipped from Charleston. Ex- 
tensive plantings for shipment have also been made in 
Florida and South-western Georgia, one farmer having 
twenty acres near Thomasville, Thomas County, 

Although there are lands to be had in the vicinity of Sa- 
vannah, with adequate drainage, and so admirably adapted 
to the cultivation of strawberries, that the best fruit 
farms in the country could be established in this locality, 
not enough are grown to supply the local demand, and 
supplies for that purpose are procured from Florida and 
Charleston. In the local market the retail price ranged 
from fifteen cents to one dollar per quart-basket the past 
season, averaging thirty cents. The first sales were 
made February 20th. The first shipments from Florida, 
about February 1st, that arrive in gooli order in the 
Northern market, sometimes bring from three to five 
dollars. Larger shipments of one hundred quarts and 
upwards generally bring about two dollars. Heavier, and 
later shipments, soon reduce the price. 

From Charleston, the first shipments, coming late in 
March, bring from seventy-five cents to one dollar per 
quart, but the price drops, as the quantity increases, to 
from thirty-five to fifty cents per quart. 

The first from North Carolina bring about the same 
price as Charleston berries. The immense quantities 
shipped from Norfolk, commencing about May 10th, 
notwithstanding the freslier state of the fruit, bring the 
price down to from twenty-five to thirty-five cents, and 
sometimes lower still. 

New York is the best market for strawberries. No 
fancy prices are realized in Baltimore. 

Occasionally we enjoy in the latitudes of Savannah and 
Mobile a sufficiently protracted period of warm weather 



THE STRAWBERRY. 241 

in winter for the plants to bloom and mature fruit, en- 
abling us to make several pickings in December, but this 
occurs very rarely. 

G. H. Baker, of Illinois, reported having raised two 
hundred and fifty- three bushels, or eight thousand and 
ninety-six quarts of ^' Wilson's Albany," upon an acre, 
giving him a clear j)rofit of fifteen hundred and nine 
dollars. Mr. Parker, of Massachusetts, picked three 
thousand two hundred quarts of the same variety from 
an acre within ten days, and sold them on his premises 
for eleven hundred and twenty dollars. The well-known 
authority on the strawberry — Rev. E. P. Roe, of Orange 
County, N. Y., in his work " Success with Small Fruits," 
mentions the yield of one of his beds of the '^ Orescent 
Seedling," at the rate of three hundred and forty-six 
bushels, or eleven thousand and seventy-two quarts to the 
acre. A fe\v years ago, 0. B. Galusha reported, in an 
Illinois journal, that he had produced fourteen thousand 
quarts of the same variety to the acre. These exceptional 
crops are merely given to show the capabilities of the 
strawberry under favorable contingencies. No such ex- 
traordinary yields can be realized in any other than a cool 
and moist climate, and it is doubtful whether in our hot 
region, under the most favorable conditions of soil, vari- 
ety, manure, careful preparation and proper cultivation, 
without subdrainage and irrigation, more than six thou- 
sand quarts per acre can be produced, while three thou- 
sand may be considered a good yield, and from fifteen 
hundred to two thousand are common. One farmer, 
near Savannah picked eight hundred and ninety-four 
quarts from two-thirds of an acre and discontinued 
picking after the price fell below fifteen cents. 

SOIL AND ITS PREPARATIO]^. 

The selection of soil and location should be made with 
a view to provide the moisture so absolutely indispensa- 
11 



242 TRUCK-FARMIKG AT THE SOUTH. 

ble for successful strawberry culture. Tlie plant is very 
deep-rooted, its roots having been traced to a depth of 
four feet. Surface watering by hand is impracticable, 
and of no avail, nor are low lying situations, unless sus- 
ceptible of deep drainage, advisable. 

A well-drained, deeply stirred, friable, more or less 
loamy or clayey soil, with plenty of vegetable matter, will 
be more retentive of moisture and more suitable than any 
other. If there be a choice of location, a northern open 
exposure is to be preferred. 

A light, sandy soil, although it will mature the earliest 
fruit, will produce smaller berries, the jDicking season 
will be much shorter, and the entire crop is apt to be 
killed out during the first summer. This summer kill- 
ing is the chief draw^back to strawberry culture at the 
South. 

If stable manure is to be used, the lighter the land, the 
more necessity that the manure should be thoroughly 
rotted, lest the plants grow to vine at the expense of the 
fruit. This is more likely to occur at the South than in 
a cooler climate, and heavier applications of manure are 
therefore more practicable at the North. 

While large quantities of strong animal manures are 
not necessary on already fertile clay soils, they cannot 
contain too much decaying vegetable matter. If the soil 
be of proper character, a field which has been planted for 
several seasons in vegetables, and upon which no weeds and 
grass have been permitted to go to seed, would give the 
best chances for success. Such land, after having ma- 
tured a well-manured cabbage crop, would need no other, 
and no better fertilization, than a crop of cow peas sown 
after the removal of the cabbages in May, and turned 
under a few weeks before the setting of the strawberry 
plants. In such case the land should be deeply cross- 
plowed, a subsoil following the turning plow, a deep soil 
beinof as necessary as a fertile one. If manure is to be 



THE STRAWBERRY. 243 

applied, it mnsfc be broadcast, after the first jolowing and 
harrowing, and then be turned nnder at the cross plow- 
ing. Each plowing should be followed by the use of the 
subsoil plow, and afterwards by the harrow. It is a mis- 
taken idea that the roots of the previous season are either 
dead or have no functions to perform, for it is in them 
mainly that the leaves have stored up matter for the fu- 
ture use of the plant. In the preparation of the soil it 
should, therefore, be borne in mind that it is to serve for 
several years, and that no subsequent deep stirring dur- 
ing the after cultivation of the crop is practicable. 

Composts of muck, or leaf-mould, with stable, cow, or 
artificial manures are useful. Potash has been found 
especially beneficial to the crop. Cotton seed is also 
good. 

METHODS OF PLANTING. 

Strawberries may be grown by either one of the three 
methods of : 

First, The single hill. Second, The continuous single 
row. Third The matted bed. 

Each has its advantages, but the former is more suita- 
ble to this climate, as it renders clean culture less trou- 
blesome and expensive, and, although the crojD may not 
be as abundant, finer and larger fruit is produced. It 
is, therefore, the only method suited to the cultivation 
of the larger varieties, such as the ''Sharpless," the 
^^Bidwell," and others like them. 

The field, having been plow^ed in narrow lands, thirty 
to forty feet wide, and finely prepared by cross harrow- 
ing, is laid off in straight rows three to three and a half 
feet apart. This may be done by the garden line, or 
more expeditiously by means of a wheel upon the tire of 
which are fixed knobs or projections at certain regular 
distances. The impression of the tire upon the soft 
soil marks the lines, while those of the knobs indicate 



244 TRUCK-FARMIKG AT THE SOUTH. 

the spots for the insertion of the plants. The wheel is 
fixed between handles like that of a seed-drill, and has 
an upright stick in front, whicli is lined to a set of 
poles like those nsed for laying off trenches with the 
plow. The plants are put out from twelve to eighteen 
inches apart in the row, and the knobs and wheel are 
arranged accordingly. 

The planting for the continuous row is the same. The 
difference between the two results from subsequent cul- 
ture. The advantages of this method, compared with 
the matted bed are, that the berries will be larger, the 
cultivation may be partly with the cultivator, and there 
will be less cutting of vines to be done. 

If the matted-bed system is contemplated, slightly ele- 
vated beds four feet wide, with intervening paths eight- 
teen inches wide, whicli act as auxiliary drains, are 
thrown up by the plow. On these, after they have been 
raked off, three rows are put out, eighteen inches apart, 
one running down the centre of the bed, the plants 
twelve to eighteen inches from each other. The advan- 
tages that may be claimed for this method are, the 
greater number of bearing plants; the fact that after 
the first year few or no runners will be produced on the 
top of the bed; that the close growth tends to keep 
down weeds, and that the soil will not be compacted, and 
its porosity destroyed by the trampling of the pickers, 
who gather the fruit. 

SETTING OUT THE PLAKTS. 

Strong, well-rooted x)lants of the same season's 
growth, only, should be used for setting out. Long 
straggling roots may be shortened to suit the general 
length and that of the dibble or trowel. The latter is 
to be preferred for planting, as the roots will be spread 
out, instead of being crowded together in the narrow 
hole of the dibble. If the plants have been procured 



THE STRAWBEKKY, 245 

from a distance, it may be advisable to trim away dead 
leaves and puddle the roots. If they can be taken freshly 
from a field near by, neither will be necessary. When 
set out the upper portions of the roots should neither 
show above the soil nor should the crown be buried, but 
be inserted to tlie level of the general surface. 

The weather being favorable, the earlier that strong 
well-rooted plants can be had and be set out, the better 
will be the growth during the fall and winter, and, there- 
fore, the earlier and more abundant will be the first crop. 
This planting may sometimes be done as early as the 
first of August. It is impossible to procure plants from 
Northern nurseries early enough, which is another reason 
for preferring those of home growth. If such have been 
potted and put out in July, a still better first crop may 
be realized. As there will be no disturbance of the roots 
in transferring the plants from the pots to the open 
ground, it may be done regardless of dry weather, should 
such prevail at the time. Two and a half or three-inch 
flower pots, filled with soil, are plunged in the beds up to 
the rim, wherever young plants upon the runner are 
about to root, and these are kept in place by placing upon 
the runner a pebble, an oyster shell, or other weight. 

Late in September and October is, however, the safest 
season for putting out unpotted strawberry plants in this 
latitude ; but it may be done through the whole winter 
and during early spring. 

Clean culture is of paramount importance. Unless a 
farmer be resolved to accomplish this, he had better not 
attempt a strawberry crop in our weed and grass-growing 
climate. Its prospective value, its duration, and the 
cost of preparation are too great to abandon the planta- 
tion to gi-ass and weeds, after the first picking season is 
over. The cost of planting is so great, and when well 
cared for the crop is so much more productive the second 
year than the first, that the practice of treating it like 



246 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 

an annual crop cannot be too strongly condemned. It 
is often the case that this practice is adopted by some, 
from ignorance, or want of industry, and by others, from 
want of time or from negligence, during the season of 
shipping other produce. If, however, during the picking 
season, a warm, wet spell should prevail, the task of sub- 
dning the weeds is not easy of accomplishment. Hon. C. 
C. Langdon, of Alabama, a good authority on strawberry 
culture at tlie South, reported a serious case of the kind 
in 1868, when it required the work of nine men during 
six days to clean five-eighths of an acre. The plants, 
'^ Wilson's Albany," had been set out in March, 1864, in 
rows of single hills, four feet apart, the plants being 
eighteen inches from each other. 

During the whole life of a plantation on the single 
hill system, the cultivator, running shallow, may keep 
the surface clean and mellow, when not mulched, to 
within an inch or two of the plants, and the hoe, with 
hand-weeding, must be relied upon between the plants. 
A variety, otherwise suitable, like the ^^ Wilson's Al- 
bany," that makes few runners, is best adapted to this 
method, and the runners must be scrupulously removed 
by a hoe or knife. The plants, instead of exhausting 
their nutriment in the production of runners, will store 
up a greater amount for the next crop of fruit, and the 
stools will enlarge until the leaves of adjacent plants 
nearly touch each other in the rows. When the continu- 
ous row is contemplated, the cultivation is the same dur- 
ing the first season as above described, but after the run- 
ners begin to grow, all those projecting out from the 
line of rows are to be cut away, allowing only such to 
take root as extend along the line of plants. By this 
method a continuous narrow bed, ten inches or a foot 
wide, becomes established. During the third and fourth 
seasons all new runners must be removed. The cultiva- 
tion of the matted-bed crop is exclusively by the hoe, 



THE STRAWBERRY. 247 

except in the intervening paths, where the plow may be 
used. During the second season there should be no room 
for the hoe, and the work should be confined to hand- 
weeding, when necessary. The soil, in all three meth- 
ods, should be kept mellow and clean until Just before 
budding or blooming commences, in order to destroy as 
many of the germs of weeds as possible. 

MULCHIKG. 

Immediately after the last working, a mulch should 
be applied around the plants and over the entire inter- 
vening surface. This is done especially to prevent the 
frnit from becoming splashed Avith soil by rains. The 
other benefits of the mulch, already mentioned in a 
former chapter, will follow incidentally. If possible, 
the mulch should be thick enough to prevent the growth 
of grass. 

Of our available materials for malching, pine straw 
13 the best, either whole or cut, as insects are less apt to 
harbor under it. Sawdust is objectionable because the 
finer particles w^ill adhere to the fruit, and when rice 
chaff is used, small graminivorous birds are apt to scratch 
away berries, as w^ell as a part of the mulch, in search for 
pieces of the grain. As soon as the fruiting season is 
over, the mulch must be removed and the crop cleaned 
and cultivated at whatever cost of labor. It is right here 
that the fatal neglect generally occurs. 

The matted bed requires no mulch the second season, 
nor should there be any room for it. The closely grow- 
ing plants will protect the fruit from being soiled. 
Owing to the crowded condition of the plants, the earlier 
will be the exhaustion of the soil, and the greater the 
impossibility of stirring the compacted surface. Hence 
the bearing of the matted bed becomes so poor that it is 
generally advisable to plow it up after the second season, 
and to use the land for some other crop. Plantings, 



248 TRUCK-FARMIiq^G AT THE SOUTH. 

after the other two methods, are most productive the sec- 
ond season, but remain remunerative two seasons more. 
After the fourth year, the land should be used for some 
other crop. New beds should be set out every year to 
re23lace those going out of use. Top-dressings of ashes, 
bone meal and muck, or some other fine compost, the 
best ingredients of wliich are susceptible of being 
leached out and carried into the soil by rains, should be 
made prior to putting on the mulch. These should be 
applied each successive season. 

PICKING A^D MARKETIiq'G. 

The season for ripening, or for shipping varies more 
than with any other crop of the truck-farmer. A period 
of freezing late in the season will destroy any exiDauded 
blossoms, or young fruit already formed, and retard the 
first picking. If there be no black or heavy hoar frost 
with a low degree of temperature in January or later, 
the crop will come in early in March. If the roots could 
be kept moist by irrigation the fruiting season might be 
considerably prolonged. 

Strawberries as far south as Charleston and Savannah 
should not be fully ripe when picked for shipment. They 
should not be pulled from the vines and bruised, but the 
stems should be pinched off, leaving a part attached to 
each berry. The least handling, and that little, carefully 
done, will tend to insure good quality and satisfactory 
prices. The picking must be done directly into the 
quart baskets in which the berries are to be shipped. 
The stems and ^Miulls " (the calyxes), will admit air be- 
tween the berries and prevent bruising. These baskets 
are packed in separate tiers, in well-ventilated, locked 
crates, each holding thirty-two baskets. 

It is thought that when the buyer sees fine berries in 
the top layer he infers there is a good quality throughout 
the crate, for which reason the best baskets are fre- 



THE STRAWBERKY. 



249 



quenfcly reserved for '^Hoppers." This practice should be 
utterly condemned in the case of this fruit as well as in 
all shipments of vegetables. 



INSECTS. 



Wherever the common field crickets abound, they be- 
come very destructive, injuring many of the ripening 
See chapter on "Insects." Other in- 



fruits at night. 




Fig. 66.— STRAWBERRY 

LEAF- ROLLER {Aiichylopera 
frafiarix). 

a, Larva, of real size ; b. Moth, 
enlarged. 




Fig. 67. — STRAW- 
BERRY CROWN- 
BORER. 



sects particularly infesting the strawberry plant at the 
South are : 

1. Ancliylopera fragarim — (The Strawberry leaf -roller). 

2. Emphytus maculatus — (Strawberry-worm). 

3. Analcis fragarim — (Strawberry crown-borer). 

4. Colasjns flavida — (Strawberry leaf-beetle). 

5. Corimelcena pidicaria — (Flea-like Negro-bug). 
The half-inch long worm of the moth Ancliylojjera 

fragaricB (fig. ^Q) lies hidden in the curled-up leaf, upon 
which it feeds. In consequence of this habit, any efii- 
caceous aj^plication of an insecticide is of doubtful use. 
The second brood passes the winter in the ground in the 
pupa state. Either of the remedies that have been 
recommended for destroying the larvae, by burning off the 
dead leaves, or by passing a heavy roller over the plants 
would be more destructive to the crop than any injuries 
the insects might possibly inflict. 



250 



TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 



The Strawberry-worm (fig. G8) sometimes injures the 
leaves considerably. The larva is about half an inch 
long, of yellowish green color. It feeds generally in a 




Fig. 68.— STRAWBERRY 

WORM {Emphytus 
maculatus). 




Fig. 69. — 7LT OF STRAWBERRY 
WORM. 



curled-up position on the leaf. It winters in the ground 
as a chrysalid. Its perfect state is a fly (fig. 69). 

The snout-beetle (Analcis fr agarics, fig. 67) lays its 
eggs in the crown of the plant, where the young larvae 
damage the leaves and fruit stalks. Colaspisflavida (figs. 
70, 71) is an insect not distantly related to the Colorado 








Fig. 70. 

STRAWBERRY 

LEAF-BEETLE, 

Larva. 



Fig. 71. 
STRAWBERRY LEAF- 

BEETLE. 
1, enlarged; 2, real size. 



potato-beetle. Lime, first slaked and sifted, dusted on 
the leaves while yet wet wiui dew is said to drive away 



THE STRAWBERRY. 25.1 

the worms of Emphytus maculatus. Pyrethrum powder 
may be applied at any time, but Paris green may only 
be used after the bearing season has passed, in case any 
of these insects become very destructive. 



CONCLUSION. 



Some of the truck-farmers near the large cities, prin- 
cipally those planting on a smaller scale, grow a general 
assortment of vegetables and attend the local markets. 

Owing, however, to the numerous ^^ patches " in the 
vicinity, and the competitions the\' cause, this attend- 
ance has of late years been unsatisfactory. Nearly all 
the farmers grow Rata Baga or Swedish Turnips in the 
fall for sale to the retail grocers in the winter, the price 
being twenty-five cents for eight bunches. 

Another source of income is the hay crop. The heav^ 
ily manured fields produce a thick growth of O^ab-grass. 
which may be mowed several times during the season, 
making good hay when cut at the proper time. Unfor- 
tunately for the reputation of this product, many farm- 
ers defer cutting the grass until it is too old to make hay 
of the best quality. The price is fifteen dollars per ton. 
The crop of one of the farmers in this vicinity in 1882 
was valued at two thousand dollars. 

Apart from the neighborhood of cities truck-farming is 
generally an adjunct to cotton planting. In Florida, it 
is an adjunct to orange growing. In southwestern 
Georgia, along the line of the Savannah, Florida, and 
Western Railroad, in parts of Florida and at other ex- 
treme southern points, the fields, after having yielded 
early vegetables for shipment, sometimes produce the 
most satisfactory portions of the cotton crop, owing to 
the previous manuring ancl careful working of the land. 



252 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 



APPENDIX, 



ANALYSES AND VALUES OF FERTILIZERS. 

The truck-farmer is forced to use to a greater or less 
extent some kind of artificial fertilizer. The following 
circular, issued by the Department of Agriculture of the 
State of Georgia, contains information of value to all who 
purchase and use fertilizers. The circular as issued by 
the Department contains a column giving the names of 
the persons for whom the inspection was made. As this 
information has no permanent value, it is omitted for 
the purpose of sa^dng space. Some other unimportant 
omissions have been made in reproducing the circular. 

ANALYSES AND COMMERCIAL VALUES OF COMMERCLiL 
FERTILIZERS AND CHEMICALS, 

Inspected, Analyzed and Admitted to Sale in Georgia to 
January 10, Season of 1882-3. 

Department of Agriculture, 

Atlanta, Ga., January 20th, 1883. 

EXPLANATIONS OF THE TABLES OF ANALYSES. 

The tables commencing on page 254 show the analyses 
and calculated relative commercial values of all fertilizers 
and chemicals inspected, analyzed and admitted to sale, 
to January 10th, 1883. 

In addition to the chemical determinations and com- 
mercial values, a column has been added which shows 
the numbers of tons represented by the samples whose 



APPENDIX. 253 

analyses are given. This information may sometimes be 
important to farmers and other jDurehasers. 

RELATIVE COMMEKCIAL VALUES. 

After very extended corresi3ondence and careful con- 
sideration, it has been thought proper to reduce the 
valuations of ammonia and phosphoric acid from those 
of last season. The following prices per pound of the 
valuable ingredients or elements of plant food found in 
the fertilizers by analysis, have been adopted as a prac- 
tical approximation to their true value at Savannah, viz: 

Available Phosphoric Acid 10 cents per pound. 

Ammonia 30 cents per pound. 

Potash 6 cents per pound. 

Last season the valuations were: 

Available Phosphoric Acid 12i cents per pound. 

Ammonia 25 cents per pound. 

Potash ., 6 cents per pound. 

It is often desirable to know the relative amounts paid 
by a farmer for the several valuable ingredients in a ton 
of fertilizers. The following is a simple rule : Multiply 
the per centage of ammonia, as given in tlie tables, by 
$4.00, the available phosphoric acid by $2.00 and the 
potash by 11.2, or $1.1-5, and the respective results will 
show the value of each ingredient in a ton. Thus : Sup- 
pose a fertilizer analyzes as follows : 

Available Phosphoric Acid 9.27 per cent. 

Ammonia 2.15 per cent. 

Potash 1.85 per cent. 



Then 



9.27 multiplied by 2 $18.54 

2.15 " "4 8.60 

'1.85 " "1.2 2.22 

Tota' $29.86 



254 



TRUCK-FARMIXG AT THE SOUTH. 



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APPENDIX. 257 

ECONOMY m FERTILIZATION. 

Ever since the Department of Agriculture of Georgia 
was organized, an effort has been made, through its pub- 
lished reports, to impress upon the farmers of the State 
the importance of adopting some cheap means of increas- 
ino- the yield of their crops and at the same time increase 
the fertility of the soil. The value of pea vines as an 
improver of the soil has been repeatedly urged upon the 
attention of the farmers, while the superiority of compost 
over high-priced commercial manure has been shown by 
repeated experiments conducted under the auspices of 
the Department during the last seven years. Formulae 
and directions for composting home manures with super- 
phosphate and kainit have been published in the reports 
of the Department from time to time, and results of ex- 
periments with the composts made according to these 
formulae published annually since 1875. These results 
show very conclusively the great economy in the use of 
the compost, since at one half the cost per acre of the 
commercial fertilizers, as good yields have been uniformly 
obtained. 

It has generally been admitted that when an experi- 
ment has been conducted for five years with uniformly 
the same results, the question so determined may be 
regarded as settled. 

Experiments have been conducted under the auspices 
of this Department in every part of the State, under 
various conditions for six years. In these expei'iments 
the compost of superphosphate and kainit with cotton 
seed and stable manure has been compared every year 
with the best grades of commercial fertilizers, with re- 
sults most favorable to the compost. 

While pea vines and lime furnish the cheapest and most 
effective means of restoring fertility to worn soils, and of 
maintaining it in those not yet exhausted, the compost 



258 TRUCK-FARMIis^G AT THE SOUTH. 

of superj^hosphate and kainit with stable manure and 
cotton seed furnishes, beyond question, the most econom- 
ical manure the Southern farmer or planter can apply to 
his crop from year to year. 

Besides supplying plant food in the best and most 
available forms, the compost exerts a mechanical influence 
upon the soil not produced by the plain commercial fer- 
tilizers. Either the composts or the pea ^ines will supply 
all the ammonia needed in our soils; the composts for 
special manuring of crops, while the pea vines will furnish 
ammonia and humus to the whole soil. It must not, 
however, be understood that ammonia is the only im- 
portant element of plant food supplied by these cheaj) 
sources of fertility. On the contrary, they sujDply all of 
the elements of plant food. Some of these, however, exist 
in such small percentages that very large quantities of the 
substances must be applied to siij^ply these elements in 
sufficient quantities for the joroduction of maximum 
crops. The principal deficiency is in the percentage of 
phosphoric acid contained in pea vines and stable manure. 
This is sujDplied by the addition of superphosphate in the 
compost at the time of putting it up. The pea vines may 
be manured with superphosphates, and thus at the same 
time suj^ply this essential element of fertility to the soil, 
and increase the growth of vines to be returned to the 
soil. 

A comparison of the analyses of the Southern field pen 
with that of clover, which has been used as a soil-improver 
so long, shows very slight difference so far as either their 
feeding or manurial value is concerned. It is not neces- 
sary to speak of the value of stable manure and cotton 
seed as manure. Their value is known to all who till 
Southern soil. 



APPENDIX. 259 

FORMULAE FOR COMPOSTS. 

If the stable manure and cotton seed have been pro- 
tected from waste by exposure to rain and sun, the fol- 
lowing formula is recommended : 

Stable manure 6-^0 pounds. 

Green cotton seed 650 

Superphosphate ''00 

Making- a ton of 2,000 pounds. 

If the compost is intended for use on soils particularly 
deficient in potash, the proportion of cotton seed and 
stable manure may be reduced fifty pounds each, and 
one hundred pounds of kainit used instead. The 
formula would then be: 

stable manure 600 pounds. 

Cotton seed, green 600 ^^ 

Superphosphate 'Xa ,, 

Kainit 100 

Making a ton of 3,000 pounds. 

These ingredients may be varied in proportions to 
adapt the resulting composts to different soils or crops, 
but either of the above will be found to give satisfactory 
results on every class of soils and on all of our cultivated 

crops. 

Directions for Composting.— The ingredients may 
be mixed either by building up the heap by alternate 
layers of the ingredients, or they may be thoroughly 
mixed and then thrown into a heap. In either case water 
should be freely used on the coarse materials while com- 
posting. 

The following directions, which have been given m 
former publications of this Department, have been gener- 
ally followed by those who have used the compost with 
most satisfactory results. Most farmers prefer the plan 
of mixing the ingredients well before placing them in the 
heap for fermentation. Under this plan the mingling of 
the ingredients is more complete during the process of 



260 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 

fermentation, and hence its effects are probably more 
thorough, though both plans have given good results. 

Directions for Composting. — Spread under shelter 
a layer of stable manure four inches thick ; on this 
sprinkle a portion of the phosphate ; next spread a layer 
of cotton seed three inches thick ; wet these thoroughly 
with water, and then apply more of the phosphate ; next 
spread another layer of stable manure three inches thick, 
and continue to repeat these layers in the above order, 
and in proportion to the quantity of each used to the 
ton, until the material is consumed. Cover the whole 
mass with stable manure, or scrapings from the lot, one 
or two inches thick. Allow the heap to stand in this 
condition until a thorough fermentation takes place, 
which will require from three to six weeks, according to 
circumstances; dependent upon proper degree of moisture 
and the strength of materials used. AYhen the cotton 
seeds are thoroughly killed, with a sharp hoe or mattock, 
cut down vertically through the layers ; pulverize and 
shovel into a heap, where the fermentation will be re- 
newed, and the compost be still further improved. Let 
it lie two weeks after cutting down; it will then be ready 
for use. 

The following plan of mixture gives equally satisfactory 
results : Mix the cotton seed and the stable manure in 
proper proportion, moisten them with water, apply the 
proper proportion of phosphate and mix thoroughly, 
shoveling into a mass as prepared. 

There is some advantage in this plan, from the fact 
that the ingredients are thoroughly commingled during 
fermentation. 

For Cotton. — Apply in the opening furrow two hun- 
dred pounds, and with the planting seed seventy-five or 
one hundred pounds, making in all two hundred and 
seventy-five or three hundred pounds per acre. If it is 



APPEi^DIX. ^61 

desired to apply a larger quantity, open furrows the de- 
sired distance, and over them sow broadcast four hun- 
dred pounds per acre ; bed the land and then apply one 
hundred pounds per acre with the seed. 

Foe Co Els'. —Apply in the hill, by the side of the seed, 
one gill to the hill. An additional application around 
the stalk, before the first plowing, will largely increase 
the yield of grain. 



262 



TRUCK-FARMIKG AT THE SOUTH. 



USEFUL TABLES. 

A. TABLE SHOWING THE NUMBER OF HILLS OR PLANTS IN AN ACRE OF 

LAND AT GIVEN DISTANCES, FROM 12 FEET BY 12 FEET, 

TO ONE FOOT BT ONE FOOT. 



Feet. 




Per 

Acre. 


12 Oby 12.0 


302 


12.0 by 


10.0 


363 


12.0 by 


5.0 


726 


11.0 by 


11.0 


360 


11.0 by 


10.0 


396 


11.0 by 


5.0 


792 


10.0 by 


10.0 


435 


10.0 by 


9 


484 


10.0 by 


8.0 


544 


10.0 by 


7.0 


622 


10.0 by 


H.O 


723 


10.0 by 


5.0 


871 


10.0 by 


4.0 


1,089 


10 Oby 


3.0 


1,452 1 


10.0 by 


2.0 


2,178 1 


10.0 by 


1 


4,356 


9.0 by 


9.0 


537 


9.0 by 


8.0 


605 


9.0 by 


7.0 


691 1 


9.0 by 


6 


806' 


9.0 by 


5.0 


96 S 


9.0 by 


4.0 


1,210 


9.0 by 


3 


1,613 ' 


9 Oby 


2.0 


2,420 1 


9 Oby 


1.0 


4.840 


8 Oby 


8.0 


680 


8 Oby 


7.0 


777 


8.0 by 


6.0 


005 


8.0 by 


5.0 


1,089 


8.0 by 


4.0 


1,361 


8.0 by 


3.0 


1.815 


8.0 by 


2.0 


2,722 


8.0 by 


1.0 


5.445 


7.0 by 


7.0 


8S8 


7.0 by 


6.6 


957 


7.0 by 


6.0 


1,037 i 


7 Oby 


5.6 


1,131 


7.0 by 


5 


1,244 


7.0 by 


4 6 


1,382 


7.0 by 


4.0 


1,555 


7.0 by 


3.6 


1,777 


7.0 by 


3.0 


2,074 


7.0 by 


2.6 


2,489 


7.0 by 


2.0 


3,111 



Feet. 


Per 
Acre, j 


7.0 by 1.6 


4,148 


7.0 by 1.0 


6.222 i 


6.0 by 6.0 


1,210 I 


6.0 by 5.6 


1.320 \ 


6.0 by 5.0 


1,452 


6.0 by 4 6 


1.613 


6.0 by 4.0 


1,815 


6.0 by 3.6 


2,074 


6.0 by 3.0 


2,420 


6.0 by 2.6 


2.904 


6.0 by 2.0 


3.630 


6.0byl.6 


4,840 


6. Oby 1.0 


7.260 


5.6by5.6 


1,417 I 


5.6 by 5.0 


1,584 I 


5.6 by 4.6 


1,760 


5.6 by 4.0 


1,980 


5 6 by 3.6 


2,272 


5.6by3.0 


2,640 


5.6 by 2.6 


3,168 


5.6 by 2.0 


3,960 


5.6 by 1.0 


5,280 


5.6by 1.0 


7,920 


5.0 by 5.0 


1.742 


5.0 by 4.6 


1.936 


5.0 by 4.0 


2,178 


5.0 by 3.6 


2,489 1 


5.0 by 3.0 


2,904 


5.0 by 2.6 


3,484 


5 Oby 2.0 


4,356 


5. Oby 1.6 


5.808 


5.0 by 1.0 


8,712 


4.6 by 4.6 


2,151 


4.6 by 4.0 


2.420 


4 6 by 3.6 


2.765 


4.6 by 3.0 


3.226 


4.6 by 2.6 


3,872 


4.6 by 2.0 


4,840 


4.6byl.6 


6,453 


4.6 by 1.0 


9.680 


4.0 by 4.0 


2,722 


4.0 by 3.9 


2,904 


4 by 3 6 


3,111 


4.0 by 3.3 


3,350 1 



Feet. I 

4.0 by 3.0 
4.0by2.9 
4.0 by 2.6 
4.0 by 2.3 
4.0 by 2.0 
4. Oby 1.9 
4 Oby 1.6 
4.0 by 1.3 
4.0 by 1.0 
3.9 by 3. 9i 
3.9by3.6 
3.9by3.3' 
3.9 by 3.0 
3.9by2.9 
3.9 by 2. 6 
3.9 by 2.3; 
3.9by2.0 
3.9byl.9i 
3.9 by 1.6 
3.9 by 1.3! 
3.9 by 1.0 
3.6 by 3.6 
3.6 by 3. 3 
3.6 by 3.0 
3.6by2.9 
3.6by2.6 
3.0 by 2.3 
3.6 by 2.0 
3.6 by 1.9 
3.6by 1.6 
3.6 by 1.3 
3 6 by 1.0 
3.3 by 3.3 
3.3 by 3.0 
3.3 by 2.9 
3.3 by 2.6, 
3.3 by 2.3' 
3.3 by 2.0 
3.3 by 1.9 
3.3 by 1 6 
3.3 by 1.3 
3.3by 1.0 
3 Oby 3.0 
3.0 by 2.9 



Per 

Acre. 

3,680 
3,<>60 
4,356 
4,840 
5,445 
6,222 

7,2eo 

8,712 

io8eo 

3,097 
3,318 
3,574 
3.872 
4,224 
4,646 
5,162 
5,808 
6,637 
7,744 
9,272 

11,616 
3,555 
3.829 
4,148 
4.525 
4,978 
5,531 
6,222 
7,111 
8.297 
9.956 

12.445 
4.124 
4.818 
4.873 
5.361 
5,956 
6.701 
7,658 
8,935 

10,722 

13,403 
4.840 
5,289 



Feet. 



Per 

Acre. 



3.0 by 2.6 
3.0 by 2.3 
3.0 by 2.0 
3.0 by 1.9 
3.0 by 1.6 
3.0 by 1.3 
3. Oby 1.0 
2.9 by 2. 9 
2.9 by 2.6! 
2.9 by 2. 3 
2.9by2.0 
2.9by 1.9 
2 9 by 1.6 
2 9 by 1.3 
2.9byl.O 
2.6 by 2.6 
2.6by2.3 
2.6 by 2.0 
2. Oby 1.9 
2.6 by 1.6 
2.6by 1.3 
2.6byl.O 
2.3 bv 2.3 
2.3 by 2.0 
2.3 by 1.9 
2.3by 1.6 
2.3 by 1.3 
2.3by 1.0 
2.0 by 2 0! 
2.0byl.9 
2.0byl.6 
2.0by 1.3| 
2. Oby 1.0 
1.9 by 1.9 
1.9 by 1.6 
1.9 by 1.3 
1.9byl.0 
1.6by 1 6 
1.6 by 1.3 
1.6by 1.0 
1.3 by 1.3 
1.3 by 1.0 
l.Obyl.O 



5,808 

6.453 

7,260 

8,297 

9,680 

11,616 

14,520 

5,760 

6.336 

7.040 

7,920 

9,051 

10,560 

12,672 

15,840 

6,969 

7,740 

8,712 

9.956 

li;616 

13,939 

17,424 

8,604 

9.680 

11,062 

12,906 

15,488 

19,360 

10.890 

12,445 

14,520 

17,424 

21,780 

14,223 

16,594 

19,913 

24.454 

19:360 

23.232 

29,040 

27,878 

34.848 

43,560 



TABLE SHOWING THE SQUARE FEET AND FEET SQUARE OF AN ACRE, 
AND ITS FRACTIONS. 



Area. 


Square Feet. 


Feet Sqvare. 


1 Acre. 


43,560 


2O81/4 


Vi " 


21,780 


1471/2 


Va " 


14,520 


1201/2 


V4 " 


10,890 


1041/2 


Vs " 


5.445 


733/4 


Vl6 '• 


2,7221/2 


52V2 



USEFUL TABLES. 



263 



TABLK SHOWING THU AMOUNT OF NITROGEN, PHOSPHORIC ACID, AND 

POTASH, IN ONE TON OF THE FRESH DUNG AND FRESH URINE 

OF DIFFERENT ANIMALS, AND ALSO OF THE DRAINAGE 

OF THE BARN-YARD. 





1 TON FRESH DUNG. 1 TON FRESH URINE. 




Nitro- 
gen. 


Phos- 
phoric 
acid. 


Potash. 


Nitro- 
gen. 


Phos- 
phoric 
acid. 


Potash. 


Horse 


lbs. 

8.8 

5.8 
11 
12.0 

9 4 


lbs. 

7.0 

3.4 

6.2 

8.2 

6.2 


lbs. 

7.0 

2.0 

3.0 

5.2 

4.3 


lbs. 
31.0 
11.6 
39.0 

8.6 
22.5 

3.0 


lbs. 

0.2 
1.4 
0.4 
0.2 


lbs. 
30.0 


Cow 

Sheep 

Swine 


9.8 
45.2 
16 6 


Mean 

Drainage of barn -yard — 


25.4 
9.8 



TABLE SHOWING CONTENTS 07 A HEAP OF MANURE AT DIFFERENT 
PERIODS, EXPOSED TO RAIN, ETC. 





When put 

up, 

Nov. 3. 


April 30. 


Aug. 23. 


Nov. 15. 


Total weight of manure in heap 

Water in the heap of manure 

Total organic matter 

Total inorganic matter 

Total nitrogen in heap 

Total soluble organic matter 

Total insoluble organic matter 

Soluble mineral matter 

Insoluble mineral matter 

Nitrogen in soluble matter 

Nitrogen in insoluble matter 


10,003 
6,617 
2,824 
559 
64.3 
218 
2.576 
1.54 
405 
14.9 
49.4 


7,138 
4,707 
1,678 
753 
63.9 
305 
1,378 
204 
549 
21.4 
42.5 


7.025 
5,304 
1,064 
657 
46.3 
207 
8.57 
13S 
519 
13.2 
33.1 


6,954 
5,167 

947 

840 
46.0 

190 

757 

130 

710 
12.9 
33.1 



TABLE SHOWING WEIGHT OF MANURE PER BUSHEL, AND PER LOAD OF 

50 BUSHELS.* 



S "^ s 



lbs. 
1875 
2750 
1400 
2300 
2500 
3600 
2850 
3750 
4900 
2100 
.3250 
1400 
1900 
4350 
1700 
2403 



yo.\ 



KIND AND CONDITION OF MANURi:S. 



1. 

3. 
4. 
5. 
6. 

7. 

8. 

9. 
1.3. 
11. 
12. 
13. 
14 
15. 
16. 



Fresh horse-manure free from straw 

" pressed. 
Fresh horse-manure, as used for beddins: pijrs. 

Horse-manure from pig cellar 

" '• " " " pressed 

Pig-manure 

" " pressed 

Pig-manure and dry earth 

Sheep manure from open shod 

" " " '• pressed... 

Sheep-manure from closed shed 

" '^ " " " pressed.. 

Fresh cow-dung, free from straw 

Hen-manure 

'• '• pressed 



pressed. 



Harris' '■ Talks on Manures. 



INDEX. 



PAGE 

Acid Phosphate of Lime 41 

Allium cpa 181 

Ammonia, loss from Manure pile., 27 

How taken up . . 18 

lu different Soils 22 

In the Air 18 

In Surface Soil only 23 

Salts of 52 

Value of 253 

Ammoniated Superphosphate 42 

Analysis of Cow-pea 21 

Ash 21 

Ashes, Use of 48 

Ash of Boots left in the Soil 20 

Asparagus officinalis 119 

Asparagus 119 

Bunchers 127 

Insects Injurious to 129 

Raising Plants 121 

Saving Seed of 128 

Varieties 120 

Atwater, Prof., on Fertilizers .. ..36 

On use of Potash Salts 44 

Barn-yard Manure 31 

Bast, Cuba 128 

Beans— Bush or Snap 130 

Insects Injurious to 133 

Varieties of 130 

Beet 134 

"Bassano," 1.34 

"Early Blood Turnip," 134 

"Egyptian," 134 

Beta vulgaris 1.^,4 

Blue Bird a Destroyer of Insects. . . 

116-11/) 

Bone Meal 42 

Borecole 178 

Boussingault on Nitrogen 11 

Box for Tomato Plants 224 

Brassica oleracea 137 

var. Botrytis 163 

var. sabellica 178 

Cabbages 137 

Analysis of 144-149 

Club-foot in 143 

264 



Cabbages, Cow-peas for 145 

Distance apart. 147 

Injured by Magnesium 44 

Insect Enemies of 152 

Manures for 144 

Packing 149 

Puddling 147 

Seeds and Sowing 140 

Soils for 142 

Sowing in place 146 

Transplanting 146 

Cabbase, Varieties of 137 

" Brunswick," 138 

"Early Summer," 138 

"Flat Dutch, American, "..139, 151 

"Fottler's Brunswick," 139 

" Jersey Wakefield," 139 

" Schweinfurth," .« 138 

" Winningstadt," 138 

Carbonic Acid in Soil 13 

Cauliflower 163 

Cutting and Packing 168 

Protecting 168 

Varieties . ...165 

"Algiers," 166 

"Early Paris," 167 

'• Short-stemmed Lenorraand,". 167 

"Snowball," 165 

"Very Early Dwarf Erfurt,".. 167 
Chenopodium ambrosioides, var. An- 

thelminticum 60 

Chloride of Magnesium 44 

Chuck-will's Widow and Spring 76 

CitntUus vulgaris 229 

Clover, Analysis of 149 

Cold Frames 72, 80-81 

Composting Manures 28 

Materials for S8 

Cotton Seed as Cattle Food 37 

Injurious to Swine 37 

In Compost 37 

Cotton-seed IMeal, Value as Manure 29 

Cow, Manure 31 

Annual Product 32 

Urine from, Annually 32 

Cow-pea, Analysis of Vine 21 



IKDEX. 



265 



Cow-pea, Analj'sis of Ash 21 

Compared with Clover 146 

Constituents of One Ton 22 

Green, Manuring with 19 

Hook to Turn Under 25 

Mulching with 23 

Nitrogen in 2L 

Plowing Under 24 

Koller toCut 25 

Cow-penning, Utility of 32 

Crate, a Barrel 04 

A Bushel 92 

Ci-ates, Blocks for Making 94 

Crops, Rotation of 54 

To follow in Rotation 57 

Cuba Bast 123 

Cucumber 169 

Improved White Spine — 170 

Insects Attacking 173 

Seed Saving 172 

Cucumus sativus 169 

Oucurbita pepo 209 

Cultivation, Benefits of 14-15 

Cut- worms Absent from Cow-pon- 

ned Land 33 

Cynodon Dactylon 61 

Cyperus rotundus, var. Hydra 00 

'• Deaconing " Packages 91 

Dew ; 72 

Dibble, Use of 85 

Drainage. 11 

Drain-w^ater, Nitrogen 23 

Earth Closets, Manure from 40 

Economy in Fertilization 257 

Egg Plant 175 

Entomology, Importance of ..... 97 

Eupatorhim foeniculaceum 60 

Excrement, Yearly, of Man 39 

Contents of. , 40 

Value Depends on Food 29 

Fall Plowing Not Useful 12 

Fertility Improved by Preventing 

Evaporation 23 

Fertilization, Economy in 257 

Fertilizer, Definition of 17 

Fertilizers, Analyses of 232 

Ashes Leached and Unleached. 48 

Ashes. Constituents 48 

Bone Meal 42 

Cottonseed 37 

Commercial 36 

Conditions of Use 36 

Fish-scrap 38 



Fertilizers— Fish-guano 38 

Guano, Peruvian 34 

Chincha 35 

Guanape 35 

Gypsum 51 

Kainit 44 

Land Plaster 51 

Laws Concerning ^ 35 

Lime 48-49 

Muck 41 

Night-soil 39 

Nitrate of Soda 52 

Nitrogenous 52 

Value of 52 

Potash 43 

Potash Salts ^4 

Ashes Preferred to 48 

Chlorides 47 

Composition of 45 

Sulphates 46 

Using 47 

Poudrette 40 

Prof. Atwater on 36 

Salt 50 

Soda. Nitrate 52 

Superphosphate of Lime 41 

Florida, Vegetables from, in 188S.. 5 
Forbes, Prof. S. A., on Blue Birds. 116 

Fragaria Chilensis 237 

grand/flora 237 

vesca 237 

Virglnlana 237 

Frost 73 

Indications of 7') 

Table of Last 76 

Germination of Seeds 62 

"Grass," 121 

Grass, Salt-Marsh, Value of 33 

Green Manuring 19 

Guano— see Fertilizers 34 

Guinea Squash 175 

Gypsum 51 

Hand-weeding 15 

Hay, Analysis of 33 

Hoeing 15 

Hook for Turning Under Cow-peas. 25 

Horse, Amount of Excrement 29 

Hot-beds, Ancient Use 71 

Construction of 78 

Rarely Needed 72 

Humus 18 

Insects 96 

Blue Bird Destroys 116 



266 



I^DEX. 



Insects, Change of Form in . 105 

Chrysalis Stage of 105 

Classification of 105 

Colorado Potato-beetle,Travel3.100 

Destroyed by Birds 114 

Egg Stage or 105 

Friendly 98 

Harlequin-bug, Migration 100 

Hibernating S9 

Imago 105 

Instincts of 9T 

Larva Stage of 105 

Migration of 100 

Not Killed by Cold 103 

Parasitic 9d 

Perfect Stage 105 

Pupa Stage of 105 

Rapid Reproduction of 103 

Stages of Life of 105 

Tumble-bug Announces Spring 76 

Two-brooded at South 99 

Achetidoe 114 

Aciididce 113 

Acronycta oblinita 129 

jEgeria cucurbUce 212 

Agrotu Cochraaii 108 

devastata 109 

subgolJiica 103 

telifera 107 

Analcis frajarice 249 

Anasa tristls 212 

Anchyloperafragarice 249 

Anthomyia cepai^ini 190 

Aphidius, genus 160 

Aphides Born Alive 104 

Aphis brassicx . . 109 

Aphis Lions 160 

Aphis parasites 160 

Asparagus-beetle 129 

Baridiiis trinotatus 295 

Barn-beetle 19 ! 

Bean- weevil 183 

Blister-beetles 123, 2C6 

Botys repetitali'! 101 

Briichusfabce. 133 

Bruchus granarii'S 194 

Bi'uchus pui 194 

Bugs, Order of .105 

Butterflies and Moths 105 

Cabbage-botys 153 

Cabbage-butterflies 155 

Cabbage Flea-beetle . . 153 

Cabbage Plueia 154 



Insects— Cabbage Plutella 154 

Cabbage- worms, Green 153 

Cabbage-worms, Light-colored.. 155 

Cabbage-worm Parasite 100 

Calosoyna calidwn 113 

C'apsus oblineatus 161 

Cassida aw-ichcdcea 219 

bivittata 219 

guttata ^19 

Texana 102, ITS 

Celoena renigera 109 

Vhelymoi^ha cassidea 220 

Chinch-bug, False .161 

Cicada 113 

Clubbed Tortoise-beetle 206 

Coccinella^ species of 159 

Colaspis Jlavida 250 

Coleoptera 105 

Colorado-beetle, False 178 

Corn-seed- worm 223 

Cotton-boll- woim •-27-228 

Crickets 114 

Crioceris asparagi, 129 

Cucumber Flea-beetle 173 

Cut-worms 106 

Dark-sided 108 

Glassy 109 

Greasy 107 

Natural Enemies 112 

Remedies for 110 

Small White Bristly. 109 

Western Striped 108 

W-marked 109 

Deloyala clavata 206 

Diabrotica 12-pimctafa 174, 212 

Diabrotica vittata 173, 212 

Dii)tera 1 05 

Borvpliora juncta 101, 178 

Emphytus maculatus 250 

Fail Web-worm 183 

False Cliinch-bug 161 

Fiery Ground-beetle 113 

Flea-beetle 1S3 

Golden-eyed Flics 160 

Golden Tortoise-beetle. , 219 

Goriynia nitela 204 

Grain Bruchus 194 

Grasshoppers 113 

Grass-worm 175 

QryUotalpa bcrealis 114 

brevipennis 1 14 

vulgaris 114 

Eadena devastata 109 



INDEX. 



267 



Insects— Iladena renigera 1C9 

Haltica cacumeris 1T3 

Harlequin Cabbage-bug 160 

Ileliothis armigcry. 227-223 

Ilemiptera 105 

Hippodamia convei-gens 162 

llymenoptera 105 

Ilyphantria iexlor 133 

Juuc-bug iCe 

Lace-winged Flies 160 

Lachnosterna qnercina 206 

Lad3'-birds, or Bugs 159-162 

Laphrygma frugiperda 1 42-175 

Lema tnlineata 205 

Lepidopiera 105 

Locusia migratoiia 113 

Locusts 113 

Lytta marginata 208 

Lyita, species of 133 

Mamfstra pida 156 

Melon-worm 236 

Mole-cricket 115 

Mottled Tortoise-beetle 219 

Nerve-winged, 105 

Keuroptera 105 

Noctua clandesUna 109 

Nysius destnictor 161 

Onion Flies 190 

Ortalis flexa 190 

Orthoptera 105 

Paniscus geminatus 113 

Pea-weevils 194 

Phacellura hyalinatalis 236 

Phacellura nitklalis 175 

Pickle-worm 175 

Pieris oleracea 155 

Fieris Protodlce 158 

rapce 155 

Plant-lico 158 

Enemies to 159 

Plant-louse, Fecundity of 103 

Plusia brassiccB 154 

Plutella crucifcrainm 154 

Potato-stalk Borer 204 

Potato-stalk Weevil 204 

Pot-herb Butterfly 155 

Pieromalus puparimi 103, 155 

Rape Butterfly 155 

Shield-winged 105 

Smeared Dagger 129 

Southern Cabbage Butterfly — 156 
Sphinx Carolina 228 

cingulata 2!9 



Insects -Sphinx quinqiiemaculata . .223 

Spilosoma Vlrginica 133 

Squash-bug 212 

Squash-vine borer 212 

S.rachia histrionica 160 

Straight- winged 105 

Strawberry Crown-borer 249 

Strawberry Leaf-beetle 250 

Strawberry Leaf-roller 249 

Strawberry-worm 250 

Striped Cucumb r-beetl3. . .173, 212 

Sweet-potato Moth 219 

Syrphus Flies 160 

Tarnished Plant-bug 161 

Three-lined Leaf beetle 505 

Tortoise-beetle 178 

Twelve-spotted Squash-beetle 

174, 212 

Two-striped Squash-beetle 219 

Two-winged .105 

White Ant, Fecundity of 103 

White-grub 206 

Yellow Bear Caterpillar 138 

Zebra Caterpillar 156 

Ipomcea Batatas 213 

Kale 178 

'■Blue Curled."' 179 

" Green-curled Scotch.'" 179 

Labor 7 

Hours of 9 

Pay of 8 

Lactuca sativa 180 

Land Plaster 51 

Land. Renovation of 10 

Lawes & Gilbert's Wheat without 

Manure 56 

Laweb,Sir J.B., on Loss of Nitrogen 23 

On Nitrogen 11 

On Value of Manure from dif- 
ferent Foods 29 

Leaf Mould 41 

Leaves, Oflace of 60 

Leguminous Plants 21 

Lettuce 18) 

'• Boston Market." 180 

'Tennis Ball."' ISO 

"White Cabbage.'" 180 

Lime, Uow applied 50 

Liberates Ammonia 4'i 

Superphosphate of 41 

Liquid Manure 53 

Location of Truck-farm lo 

Longevity of Seeds (i-i 



268 



INDEX. 



Lycopersicum esculen'.um 220 

McAlpine's. Capt. J. W., Hook and 

Roller 25 

Magnesium, Chloride of 44 

Injurious to Cabbages 44 

Potatoes 44 

Manure, Applied in the Hill 31 

Bari-yard 31 

Composting 28 

Constituents of 50 Tons 144 

Covered and Uncovered. Value 

of 26 

Cow 31 

Constituents of 32 

Daily from a 22 

Definition of 17 

Eartb Closet 40 

Economy needed in 16 

Fermentation, to retard rapid.. 27 
Fresh and Decomposed. Compo- 
sition oi' 2T 

Green 19 

Importance of 16 

In large Piles 28 

Liquid 53 

How used 54 

Loss in 26 

Manner of applying 30 

Moist, Must be kept 23 

Necessary to Success 15 

Night Soil 3f; 

Analj'Sis :^9 

Of Oxen 32 

Poultry 34 

Rotation needed 58 

Sheep 34 

Stable 25 

New York Street Car 29 

Swine 33 

Value depends upon Food of 

Animal 29 

Weight of 32 

Yield from 10 ) lbs. each Hay, 

Oats, and Grass 29 

Manures, Relative Value cf 33 

Kinds and Uses 15 

Markets 94 

Melons to New York in 1882 5 

Menhaden .38 

Moss-bunkers 38 

Moles, Useful 99 

Muck 41 

Mulch. Value of Cow-peas for 23 



Negro Labor . . 7 

Night Soil 39 

Composting 40 

From Earth Closets 40 

Nitrate of Soda 52 

Nitric Acid, How taken up 18 

In the Air 18 

Nitrogen in Acre of Soil 11 

In Cow-peas 21 

In Drain Water 23 

In Human faeces 40 

Urine 40 

In Soils 49 

Oat Straw, Analysis and Value of. . 33 

Onion 181 

Analysis of 182 

Bermuda 182 

"Giant Rocca." 1?2 

"Globe Madeira.'" 183 

Insects Attacking 190 

"Italian Queen.'' 183 

"Madeira." 182 

Potato 1S3 

" Red Wethersfield." 183 

Seeds, Raising 183 

Sets 189 

" Yellow Danvers." 183 

Opuntia vulgaris 62 

Oxen, Amount of Manure from. . . 32 

Ozone 18 

Packing 93 

Paritium elatum 128 

Pea 191 

" Black-eyed " 192 

"Early Alplia" 19 

"Daniel ORourke" 192 

" Philadelphia Extra Early " . . .li>l 

" White Marrowfat "' 192 

Insect Enemies 194 

Penning of Sheep 34 

Peruvian Guano 34 

Phaseolus vulgarU ISO 

Phosphates in Urine 33 

Phosphoric Acid 41 

Value of 253 

Pisum sativum 191 

Plants, Composition of 17 

Endogenous — 59 

Exogenous f 9 

Manner of Growth 59 

Plaster-land 51 

Plowing Deep 11 

Fall not Useful 12 



IKDEX. 



269 



Portnlaca oleracca Gl 

Potash 43 

For Potatoes 44 

Salts 44 

Value of 253 

Poudrette 40 

Poultry Manure 34 

Potatoes l'J5 

'• Beauty of Hebron '' 19T 

'• Burbank " 197 

"Chili Red" 19T 

"Early Eosc"... 19? 

Diseases of 2C4 

Injured by Magnesium 44 

Insects injurious to 2C4 

Require Potash 44 

Second Crop 203 

Seed, Size of 197 

Pyrethruni Powder 157 

Quick-liniG 48 

Eadish 207 

" Long Scarlet Short-top " 207 

" Scarlet Turnip " 207 

Eaffla 123 

Rapha7ius safivus 207 

Roller-cutting for Cow-peas 25 

Roots left in the Soil 20 

Rotation of Crops . . 54 

Points to Aim at 57 

Russian Black Lands 11 

Salt, Common 50 

Salt-marsh Grass. Analysis of 33 

Grass for Penning 33 

Mud for Penning.^ 33 

Savannah, Produce from, in 1882... 5 

Schmidt, Prof., on Nitrogen 11 

Seeds 62,70 

Depth to Cover 70 

Drills for 70 

Failure, Cause of 69 

Germination of 62, 67 

Heat required 67 

Home-grown 68 

Keeping of 63 

Longevity of 63 

Quality of 63 

Roller, Use of 71 

Soaking 67 

Sowing G2 

Testing 65 

"Treading in" 71 

Sheep Manure 34 

For Penning 34 



Skiila SMis 116 

Snakes, Useful 99 

Snow, Ammonia in 22 

Soda, Nitrate of 52 

Soil 10 

Ammonia in 22 

How Formed 17 

Nitrogen in an Acre 11 

Preparation of 12 

Stirring, Importance of 14 

Solatium CkiroUnense 101-102 

ElmagnifoUum 102 

Melongena 175 

tuberosinn 195 

Spinach 208 

Spinacla okracea 208 

Spring, Announced by Animals 76 

Sprouts 178 

Squash 2 9 

'■• Early Vfhite Bush ScaUop •\.210 
"Early Summer Crook-neck ",.210 

Insects injurious to 212 

Strawberry 236 

' • Charleston "'' 239 

•• Crescent" 238 241 

Culture of 245 

"Hovey's Seedling" 238 

Manure for 242 

Methods of Planting 243 

Mulching 247 

" Xeunan " 239 

Setting Plants 2-14 

"Wilson" 239 

'• Wilson's Albany " 239, 241 

Insects injurious to 249 

Picking and Marketing ^8 

Scx?sof 238 

Superphosphate, Ammoniatcd 42 

Of Lime 41 

Sweet Potato 213 

"Brimstone "" 213 

'• Delaware " 213 

Insects in j urious to 218 

"Jersey" 213 

"Nansemond" 213 

" Pumpkin Yam " • .214 

Raising "Draw.s" 214 

Raising Seed 217 

Yam Varieties 213 

Thinning Plants 15 

Toads, Useful S9 

Tomato 220 

Insects injurious to 228 



270 



INDEX. 



Tomato Plants, Box for 224 

Picking and Packing, 22fj 

Kaising Plants 222 

Saving Seeds 228 

Transplanting 225 

Varieties, '"Acme " 220 

"Fejee" -'20 

''Hathaway" 220 

" Livingston's Perfection ", .220 

■'Pear-sliaped" 220 

"RedCiierry" 220 

'■'• Eound Smooth Red " 220 

"Trophy 220 

" Yellow Cherry 220 

" Topping ■' Packages 9T 

Transplanting 82 

Utility of 8G 

Turnip, Analysis of 149 

Urea, Composition of 32 

Amount in Urine of Animals. . . 32 
Urine Annually Voided by Cow — 32 

Phosphates in 33 

Urea in 32 

Vegetables from Florida in 1882 .... .5 

Savannah in 1882 5 

Vegetable Refuse 28 



Ventilation of Packages 91 

Voelcker, Prof 11 

Wages in Interior of Georgia 9 

Laborers' S 

Walsh, Mr., on Birds 11(5 

Water and Watering 87 

Watermelon 229 

Losses on 220 

"Rattlesnake," 231 

When, is Ripe 235 

Weather, Importance of Observa- 
tions 75 

Weeds 59 

Bermuda-grass Gl 

Coco-grass GO 

Dog-fennel ■ CO 

Nut-grass . 60 

Prickly Pear 62 

Purslane 61 

War Against 14 

Wormseed 60 

Weight of Manure 32 

Wheat Unmanured for 20 Years C6 

Whip-poor-will and Spring 70 

Woods-earth 41 



■ ^5^:^^^=:.^ 





Every Owner of a Dog should have this Book; 

THE DOGS 

Of Great Britain, America, and Other Countries. 

Their Breeding-, Training-, and Management in Health and 

Disease, comprising- all the essential parts of the two 

Standard Works on the Eog by 

STONEHENGE. 

Thereby furnishing what once cost $11.25 for $2.00. 

It describes the best Game and HUNTING GEOUNDS IN AMERICA. 

Gives names of Prize Winners in Dog S1io\ys. 

Contains OVER ONE HUNDRED BEAUTIFUL ENGRAVINGS, embrac- 
ing most noted Hops in both. Continents. 

Making together, WITH CHAPTERS BY AMERICAN WRITERS, the 
MOST COMPLETE DOG BOOK EVER PUBLISHED. 

12mo. Tinted Paper. Price, post-paid, $2.00. 



OEANGE JUDD COMPANY, 751 Broadway, New York. 





Barn Plans and Outbuildings. 

Two Himdred and Eifty-Seven Illustrations. 

A Host Valuable "Work, full of Ideas, Hints, Suggestions, 
Plans, etc., by Practical Writers, for the 

Oonstniction of Barns and all Outbuildings. 




CHAPTERS AHH BSVOTED, AMONG OTHER SUBJECTS, TO THE 

ECONOMIC ERECTION AND USE OF BARNS. 



General Farm Barns, 

Cattle Barns and StaTbles. 

Dairy Barns, 

Sheep Barns and Slied@» 

Tarriage Houses, 

Poultry Houses, 

Figrseries, 

Tool Houses, 

Corn Houses and Cribs, 



Ice Houses* 

Ice Houses and Cool Chaiabcrs, 

Dairy Houses, 

Spring Houses, 

Granaries, 

Smoke Houses, 

Doe lieimeis, 

Bird Houses, 

Root Cellars and Root Hoi£503a 



THE PRESERVATION OF FODDER IN SILOS, 

Illustrated Works tipon Barns and Out-door Buildins^s have hitherto been so 
expensive as to limit their circulation to comparatively few in number. This 
Volume of two hundred and tliirty-five paj^es. and two hundred and fifty-seven 
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secure a wealth, of designs and plani3 for a comparatively trifling sum. 

12mo. Tinted Paper. Bound in Colors and Gold. 

PRICE, POST-PAID, $1.50. 

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Gardening for Young and Old. 

THE 

CULTIVATION OF GAUDEN VEGETABLES IN THE 
FARM GARDEN. 

By JOSEPH HARRIS, M.S.; 

Author of "Walks and Talks on (he Farm,;' ''Harrison the Pig;' "TcUJcs on. 

Mamtres;'' etc. 




CONTENTS. 
Introduction.— An Old and a New Garden.- Gardening for Boys.--How to 
Begin.— Preparing the Soil.— Killing the Weeds.— About High Farming.-Com- 
peUtion in Crops.— The Manure Question.— The Implements Needed.- Start- 
ing Plants in the House or in the Hot-bed.- The Window-box.- Making the 
Hot bed.- Cold Frames.— Insects.— The Use of Poisons.— The Care of Poisons, 
—The Cultivation of Vegetables in the Farm Garden.— The Cultivation of 

Flowers. 

ILL LUST RATED. 

12mo. Cloth. Price, post-paid, $1.25. <. 

ORANGE JTJDD COMPANY, 751 Broadway, New York. 



American Gfame Bird Sliooting. 

By JOHN MORTIMER MURPHY, 

A-UtTwr of Sporting AdcenUires in the Far West, RamUes in Northwest Amei^ica, 

The Zoology and Resources of Oregon and Washington TerrUory, A Search 

for the Mountain of Gold, The Forester Qf the Ardennes, Adventures 

in the Wilds of Florida, etc., etc. 




" This is the only book yet published which gives the haunts and habits of 
the feathered game of the North American Continent, from a sportsman's point 
of view, and is therefore vakiable to all lovers of the gun."— 77ie Sj.ortsman. 

"Mr. Murphy possesses the somewhat rare faculty of giving a vast amount 
of information in a concise and interesting manner.— 'American Game Bird 
Shooting' will be found fully as interesting to the ordinary reader as to the 
most ardent votary of the dog and gun."— iV. Y. Herald. 

"A work which may be read with both pleasure and profit by sportsmen 
generally, and it is a timely addition to the literature of sport."— TVr/', Field 
and Farm. 

" This volume contains descriptions of our game and water-fowl, treats of 
their haunts and habits and also of the various modes employed in their capture; 
there are at least many things in its pages which it may be worth while for the 
tyro to 'kuoy^.'"— Forest and Stream. 

" A splendid book for true sportsmen."— 0/«o Farmer. 
HANDSOMELY ILLUSTRATED. 

12mo. Cloth. Tinted Paper. Price, post-paid, S2.03. 

ORASTGE JUDB COMPANY, 751 Broadway, Mew York. 



TALKS ON MANURES. 

By JOSEPH HARRIS, f^. S. 

Of J!orelon Firm, ItocheMer, New York. Author of " Wam and Talks on the 
Farm," " Talks on Farm Crops," *' Harris on the Pig," etc. 





While we have no lack of treatises upon artificial fertilizers, there is no work 
in which the main stay of the farm— the manm-e made upon the farm— is treated so 
satisfactorily or thorouglily as in this volume. Starting with tlie question, 

" WJEIA.T IS 3J[^NXJI?,E •? " 
the author, well-known on both sides of the water by his writings, runs tlirough in 
sufficient detail every source of manure on the farm, discussing the methods of 
making rich manure ; the proper keeping and applying it, and especially the 

and the effects of different artificial fertilizers, as compared with farm-j'ard 
manure, upon different crops. In this he makes free use of the striking series of 
experiments instituted years ago, and still continued, by Lawcs and Gilbert, of 
Bothamstod, England. The 

iu which the results of these experiments arc given, arc here for the first time 
made accessible to the American farmer. In fact, there is scarcely any point re- 
lating to fertilizing the soil, including the suitable manures for special crops, 
that is not treated, and while the teachings are founded upon the most elaborate 
scientific researches, they arc so far divested of the technical language of science 
as to commend tnemsclvcs to farmers as eminently " practical." It is not often 
that the results of scientific investigations arc presented in a manner so thoroughly 
popular. 12rao. PRICE, POST-PAID, $1.50. 

ORANGE JUDD COMPANY. 751 Broadway, New York. 





'he American Agriculturist 



FOR THE 



Farm, Garden, and Household. 

Established in 1842, 

Tie Best aM Cbeajest Asricultural Journal in tlie f orll 

Terms, which include postage pj^e-paid by the Publishers: $1.50 per annum, 
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7 copies for S8 : 10 or more copies, only $1 each. Single Numbers, 15 cents. 

AMEEIKANISCHER AGRICULTURIST. 

The only purely Agricultural German paper in the United States, and the 
best in the v;-orld. It contains all of the principal matter of the English Edition, 
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BOOZS FOR FARMERS AUD OTHERS. 

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Books on Out-Door Sports and Pastimes. 

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ORANGE JUDD COMPANY, 751 Broadway, New York. 



